Carl Wilhelm Götzloff (27 September 1799 – 18 January 1866) was a German painter.
Life
Born in
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
, Götzloff was the youngest of three children born to Friedrich Adrian Götzloff, a town constable. From 1814 to 1821, he attended the
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts
The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German language, 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 institutio ...
where he studied under
Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich (; 5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a German Romanticism, German Romantic Landscape painting, landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation, whose often symbolic, and anti ...
and
Johan Christian Dahl
Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 178814 October 1857), often known as or , was a Danish- Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting. He is often ...
, among others.
As early as 1820, he was awarded a prize for his landscape paintings at an Academy exhibition. A scholarship enabled him to undertake a study trip throughout Germany and Switzerland, eventually travelling to Rome with fellow-student
Anton Josef Dräger
Anton Josef Dräger, also known as Joseph Anton Draeger, a historical painter, was born at Trèves in 1794, and died at Rome in 1833.
Biography
He studied under Kugelgen in Dresden, but went in 1823 to Italy and took up his quarters in Rome, ...
. From 1822 to 1824, several more trips to Italy and the surrounding regions followed. Towards the end of that year, he accompanied Baron , an art collector, on a trip to
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
and
Malta
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
.
Moving to Naples
As it turned out, the Baron and his family became Götzloff's employers and he relocated permanently to Naples in 1825,
where he shared an apartment with
Antonie Sminck Pitloo
Antonie or Anton Sminck Pitloo (21 April or 8 May 1790 – 22 June 1837) was a Dutch painter. His surname was originally Pitlo, but he added the extra "o" because he was often mistaken for an Italian while resident in Italy. In Italian he is also ...
,
Giacinto Gigante
Giacinto Gigante (1806–1876) was an Italian painter, engraver, and teacher. He was known for his landscape and vista paintings, exemplary works of the Neapolitan School of Posillipo.
Biography Early life
Giacinto Gigante was born on July 11, ...
and
Teodoro Duclère. That same year, he was named an honorary member of the Dresden Academy. In 1827, he served as art teacher to Prince
Leopold I.
In 1835 he was appointed Court Painter to
Ferdinand II, King of the
Two Sicilies
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies () was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and land are ...
.
Before taking up that position, he briefly returned to Dresden where he became a full member of the Academy and married Louisa Chentrens.
In 1846,
Friedrich Wilhelm IV
Frederick William IV (; 15 October 1795 – 2 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, was King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 until his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to as the " romanticist on the ...
appointed him the "Agent for Antiquities" for the museums of Berlin. His reputation had spread so far at this point that he began to receive commissions from the Royal Family in Russia.
Financial difficulties
In 1848, he and his family moved to
Sorrento
Sorrento ( , ; ; ) is a City status in Italy, city and overlooking the Gulf of Naples, Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the southern terminus of a main branch o ...
to escape the political unrest, which also forced him to seek employment in Berlin with help from his friend
August Kestner
Georg Christian August Kestner (28 November 1777, in Hanover – 5 March 1853, in Rome) was a German diplomat and art collector.
Life
Kestner was the son of civil servant Johann Christian Kestner and his wife Charlotte Buff.
From 1796 to 17 ...
. He accompanied the 4th Bernese regiment during its conquest of
Catania
Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...
in April, 1849. The next year, he returned to Naples and, in 1852, became a Knight in the
Order of Leopold Order of Leopold may refer to:
* Order of Leopold (Austria), founded in 1808 by emperor Francis I of Austria and discontinued in 1918
* Order of Leopold (Belgium), founded in 1832 by king Leopold I of Belgium
* Order of Leopold II, founded in Congo ...
. His wife died in 1855, and he made more desperate efforts to secure employment back home.
His hopes of returning to Germany were dashed in 1861, when several paintings he sent to an art exhibition in Dresden failed to be sold. His finances were strained to the breaking point in 1864 when he had to pay a ransom to bandits for the release of his son Guido. He died poor in 1866 in
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
.
References
Further reading
*Ernst-Alfred Lentes: ''Carl Wilhelm Götzloff. Ein Dresdner Romantiker mit neapolitanischer Heimat''. Mit Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde. Belser Verlag, Stuttgart und Zürich 1996.
*Dieter Richter: ''Neapel, Biographie einer Stadt''. Wagenbach, Berlin 2005, S.152-155 (''Die casa Goetzloff'').
External links
*
Carl Wilhelm Götzloff website, by Ernst-Alfred LentesArcadja: Works by Götzloff
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gotzloff, Carl
1799 births
1866 deaths
19th-century German painters
19th-century German male artists
German male painters
German landscape painters
Artists from the Kingdom of Saxony
Artists from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Painters from Dresden