Erwin Speckter (18 July 1806,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

- 23 November 1835, Hamburg) was a German painter, often associated with the

Nazarene movement The epithet Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th-century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive spirituality in art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of c ...

Life

His father was the lithographer,

Johannes Michael Speckter Johannes Michael Speckter (5 July 1764, Uthlede - 1 March 1845, Hamburg) was a German lithographer and graphics collector. Life and work His father was a teacher from Hanover. Around 1785, he moved to Hamburg. Under the influence of the archit ...

. During the

Siege of Hamburg The siege of Hamburg was a military engagement of the War of the Sixth Coalition fought between French and Sixth Coalition forces in Hamburg. After being freed from Napoleonic rule by advancing Cossacks and other following Coalition troop ...

, his family sought refuge at the estate of a local banker. Another lithographer,

Heinrich Joachim Herterich Heinrich Joachim Herterich (May/June 1772, Hamburg – 20 March 1852, Hamburg) was a German lithographer, painter and etcher. Life and work He studied with his father, Johann Andreas Herterich (1725–1794), who was originally from Bayreuth. I ...

, was living there at the time and his collection inspired Erwin's first interest in art. His father provided some of his first painting lessons, along with the local artist

Friedrich Carl Gröger Friedrich Carl Gröger (14 October 1766 in Plön – 9 November 1838 in Hamburg) was a north-German portrait painter and lithographer. One of the most respected portraitists of his time in northern Germany, his works are to be found in seve ...

, while he attended a famous private school operated by Leonhard Wächter. In 1823 (with the support of

Carl Friedrich von Rumohr Carl Friedrich von Rumohr (6 January 1785, Reinhardtsgrimma – 25 July 1843) was a German art historian, writer, draughtsman and painter, agricultural historian, connoisseur of and writer about the culinary arts, art collector and patron of arti ...

) he, his brother and Carl Julius Milde, another aspiring painter, travelled through Northern Germany, studying the ancient monuments, but he was also influenced by seeing the works of

Friedrich Overbeck Johann Friedrich Overbeck (3 July 1789 – 12 November 1869) was a German painter and a founder of the Nazarene art movement. Early life and education Overbeck was born in Lübeck in 1789. His family had been Protestant pastors for three genera ...

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

. Two years later, he studied in Munich with

Peter von Cornelius Peter von Cornelius (23 September 1783, Düsseldorf – 6 March 1867, Berlin) was a German Painting, painter; one of the main representatives of the Nazarene movement. He was the uncle of the composer Peter Cornelius (1824–1874). Life Earl ...

and assisted him with his decorations for the

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

at the

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pin ...

. This reinforced his artistic inclinations which, upon his return home, were further subjected to the influence of a meeting with

Philipp Otto Runge Philipp Otto Runge (; 1777–1810) was a German artist, draftsman, painter, and color theorist. Runge and Caspar David Friedrich are often regarded as the leading painters of the German Romantic movement.Koerner, Joseph Leo. 1990. ''Caspar Davi ...

, and manifested themselves in paintings he did for a local estate in

Hamm Hamm may refer to: Places ;Germany: * Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, a city north-east of Dortmund * Hamm (Sieg), a municipality in the eponymous ''Verbandsgemeinde'' in the district of Altenkirchen, Rhineland-Palatinate * Hamm, Bitburg-Prüm, part ...

. This was followed by a four-year stay in Italy (mostly Rome), where he devoted himself largely to religious paintings, although he produced many drawings as well. Once again returning to Hamburg in 1834, he began putting his new ideas to work, designing frescoes for the Mayor's official residence. During this work, his

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

(which had plagued him for years) grew worse and the attacks became more frequent. He died soon after, before the work could be completed. His ''Briefe eines deutschen Künstlers aus Italien'' (Letters from Italy by a German Painter) were published posthumously by his brother-in-law, the Professor . (2 Volumes, Leipzig 1846). His brother,

Otto Speckter Otto Speckter (9 November 1807, in Hamburg – 29 April 1871, in Hamburg) was a German etcher and illustrator. Life and work He was the son of Johannes Michael Speckter, whose lithographic company he took over in 1834. His brother was the pai ...

, became a well-known illustrator.

References

External links

ArtNet: More work by Speckter

Works by Erwin Speckter
in the collection of the Bildarchiv Foto Marburg. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Speckter, Erwin 1806 births 1835 deaths German male painters Painters from Hamburg 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists

Life

References

Further reading

External links