Johann Karl Bähr (1801–1869) was a German painter and writer.

Life

Bähr was born in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

on 18 August 1801. He studied under Matthaei in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

and completed his art education with a visit to Italy in 1827–29. He married in Dresden, then spent some time back in Riga, before settling permanently in Dresden in 1832. He was made a Professor at the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institution is the produc ...

in 1840. Enthusiastic about poetry, he moved in the circle of

Ludwig Tieck Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Early life Tieck was born in B ...

in Dresden, and was a close friend of

Julius Mosen Julius Mosen (8 July 1803 – 10 October 1867) was a German poet and author of Jewish descent, associated with the Young Germany movement, and now remembered principally for his patriotic poem the '' Andreas-Hofer-Lied''. Life Julius Mosen (Juliu ...

. He then worked again in Riga and finally went to Dresden for good in 1836. Here he taught at the Art Academy from 1840, where he was appointed professor in 1846. Bähr was in demand as a portraitist, and also painted some historical works. He wrote several books: ''Die Gräber der Liven'' (1850), a report on some archaeological excavations in

Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...

which he undertook in 1846; ''Lectures on Dante's Divine Comedy'' (1853); ''Lectures on the Colour Theories of Newton and Goethe'' (1863) and ''The Dynamic Circle'' (1860–68), a scientific work which occupied him almost exclusively for the last ten years of his life. Bähr's large collection of

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n medieval antiquities was purchased by the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in 1852.British Museum Collection
/ref> He died at Dresden on 29 September 1869.

Works

His paintings include:Bryan,1886-9 *''Virgil and Dante''. *''The Anabaptists in Münster'' (lithographed by Hanfstängl, and by Teichgräber). *''Iwan the Cruel, of Russia, warned of his death by a Finnish Magician'' (signed and dated 1850); in the Dresden Galiery. *''Christ and St. Thomas'' (at

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

). *''Christ on the Cross'' (at

Zschopau Zschopau (), is a town in the Erzgebirgskreis district of Saxony, Germany. Geography The town is located on the northwestern slopes of the Ore Mountains, on both banks of the Zschopau River, about south-east from Chemnitz. The highest point ...

), *''Portrait of Julius Mosen'' (lithographed by Hanfstängl).

References

Sources

Attribution: * 1801 births 1869 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters Artists from Riga Baltic-German people Academic staff of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts {{Germany-painter-stub