Edmund Harburger - Musik und Schmiedekunst

Edmund Harburger (4 April 1846,

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Dioce ...

– 5 November 1906,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) was a German painter and

draftsman A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman, drafting technician, or CAD technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawi ...

Life

His father, Franz Xaver, was a merchant in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

, and his mother Elisabeth was the daughter of a

flagstone Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat Rock (geology), stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for Sidewalk, paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstone ...

dealer. As a result of this connection, Edmund was apprenticed as a mason; a profession he practiced until 1865. His employer's brother was the animal painter, Johann Erdmann Gottlieb Prestel (1804-1885), who inspired him to become an artist. He began by dabbling in small murals at the local casinos. After six years of apprenticeship, he attended the Polytechnic School in Munich (precursor of the

University of Technology An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...

) to study the building trades but, in 1866, he decided to follow his true passion and switched to the

Academy of Fine Arts Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...

, where he studied under Karl Raupp and Wilhelm von Lindenschmit the Younger. In addition to painting, he was also interested in illustrating and caricatures. In 1872 some of his first wood engravings appeared in a book by Friedrich Lennig, a dialect poet from Mainz. Later, he created political cartoons for ''

Die Gartenlaube (; ) was the first successful mass-circulation German newspaper and a forerunner of all modern magazines.Sylvia Palatschek: ''Popular Historiographies in the 19th and 20th Centuries'' (Oxford: Berghahn, 2010) p. 41 It was founded by publisher ...

'' and, by the time of his death, had contributed over 1,500 humorous drawings to the ''

Fliegende Blätter The ' ("Flying Leaves"; also translated as "Flying Pages" or "Loose Sheets") was a German weekly humor and satire magazine appearing between 1845 and 1944 in Munich. Many of the illustrations were by well-known artists such as Wilhelm Busch, Cou ...

''. Harburger was particularly attracted to the works of the 17th-century Dutch painters, such as

David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile artist ...

and

Adriaen van Ostade Adriaen van Ostade (baptized as Adriaen Jansz Hendricx 10 December 1610 – buried 2 May 1685) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, showing everyday life of ordinary men and women. Life According to Arnold Houbraken, he and his br ...

). From 1876 to 1878, he lived in Venice, where he copied the masters. In 1882, the firm of Braun & Schneider printed a large-format album, containing 60 of his works. Exhibitions were given at the Glaspalast, the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

(1882/84), the

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

, and the Great Berlin Art Exhibition of 1905. He designed and built his own house in the Nymphenburger Straße. Many of the major museums in Central and Northern Europe have displays of his drawings and engravings, including the

Neue Pinakothek The Neue Pinakothek (, ''New Pinacotheca'') is an art museum in Munich, Germany. Its focus is European Art of the 18th and 19th centuries, and it is one of the most important museums of art of the nineteenth century in the world. Together with t ...

, the

Landesmuseum Mainz The Landesmuseum Mainz, or Mainz State Museum, is a museum of art and history in Mainz, Germany. In March 2010 it reopened in full after an extensive renovation. The museum has its roots in a painting collection donated by Napoleon and Jean-An ...

, the

Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt (HLMD) is a large multidisciplinary museum in Darmstadt, Germany. The museum exhibits Rembrandt, Beuys, a primeval horse and a mastodon under the slogan "The whole world under one roof". As one of the oldest publ ...

and museums in Gdansk, Gothenburg, Leipzig, Münster, Prague and Zürich.

Sources

*Edwart Mager: ''Edmund Harburger - ein aus Eichstätt stammender Künstler'', in: Historische Blätter für Stadt und Landkreis Eichstätt, 28 (1979), Nr. 5 *''Heimstätten münchener Künstler''. (the houses of Matthias Schmidt, Edmund Harburger,

Franz von Lenbach Franz Seraph Lenbach, after 1882, Ritter von Lenbach (13 December 1836 – 6 May 1904), was a German painter known primarily for his portraits of prominent personalities from the nobility, the arts, and industry. Because of his standing in society ...

, Hans Theyer and Franz von Defregger), Holzstich nach Franz, 1890, 33x23 cm *Dorothea Stern: ''Harburger, Edmund.'' In: ''Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künste von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart''. Researched by Ulrich Thieme und Felix Becker. Ed. by Hans Vollmer. Vol. 16, Leipzig (1923), S. 19f. *Article in ''

Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie The ''Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie'' (''DBE'') is a biographical dictionary published by Walther Killy and Rudolf Vierhaus (from the third to fourth volume), the first edition of which was published from 1995 to 2003 in 13 volumes by K. ...

'' (DBE), Vol. 4, Munich 1996, * Adolf Wild: ''Karikaturen, die das Leben schrieb: Edmund Harburger, ein Mainzer Zeichner bei den Münchner "Fliegenden Blättern"''. In: Mainz. Vierteljahreshefte für Kultur, Politik, Wirtschaft, Geschichte. 21 (2001), 4, , ill.

External links

More works by Harburger
@ ArtNet
Edmund Harburger in HeidICON
Illustrations from the ''Fliegenden Blätter'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Harburger, Edmund 1846 births 1906 deaths German illustrators German caricaturists Technical University of Munich alumni People from Eichstätt