Ferdinand Martin Cordt Brütt (13 July 1849, in
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 ...
– 6 November 1936, in
Bergen
Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo.
By May 20 ...
) was a German painter. He was a distant relative of the sculptor
Adolf Brütt
Adolf Brütt (10 May 1855 in Husum – 6 November 1939 in Bad Berka)[Husum Tourismus: ...](_blank)
.
Life and work
He took his first art lessons at the
Hamburg School of Applied Arts, where he studied with
Günther Gensler and
Friedrich Heimerdinger
Johann Friedrich Andreas Heimerdinger (10 January 1817, Hamburg - 3 October 1882, Hamburg) was a German painter; specializing in still-lifes.
Biography
After qualifying to enter a university, he completed a degree in education. Then, at the ag ...
.
[Kronberger Maler: Brief Biography](_blank)
/ref> On their recommendation, he transferred to the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School
The Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar (German:Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar) was founded on 1 October 1860, in Weimar, Germany, by a decree of Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. It existed until 1910, when ...
in 1870, where his teachers were Albert Baur, Karl Gussow
Karl Gussow (25 February 1843, Havelberg – 27 March 1907, Munich) was a German painter and university professor.
Life and work
His early inclination to art was encouraged by his family so, as soon as he completed his secondary schooling, he wa ...
and the history painter Ferdinand Pauwels
Wilhelm Ferdinand Pauwels ( �pʌu̯əls 13 April 1830, Ekeren – 26 March 1904, Dresden) was a Belgian history painter who lived and worked in Germany.
Life
From 1842 to 1850, he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp), under ...
. Baur would be particularly influential in forming Brütt's mature style.
When Baur accepted a professorship at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Blinky Palermo, Ma ...
, Brütt went with him and became a specialist in painting courtroom scenes. He was able to draw from his own experiences, having spent quite a bit of time on jury duty
Jury duty or jury service is a Civil service, service as a juror in a legal proceeding. Different countries have different approaches to juries: variations include the kinds of cases tried before a jury, how many jurors hear a trial, and whether th ...
, developing the genre based on earlier work by Louis Gallait
Louis Gallait (9 or 10 May 1810 – 20 November 1887) was a Walloons, Belgian painter. He lay at the basis of a revival of history painting in Belgium. He earned his reputation especially with the large painting of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, ...
and Hendrik Leys.
In 1889, he took an extended study trip to Italy where he found himself less inspired by the "Old Masters" than he was by the landscapes. This prompted further trips to the Alps
The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia.
...
and the North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
. In 1893, he was appointed a Royal Prussian Professor.
In 1898, his friend Anton Burger
Anton "Toni" Burger (19 November 1911 – 25 December 1991) was a (Captain) in the German Nazi SS, in Greece (1944) and of Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Military career
Anton Burger was born in Neunkirchen, Austria, the son of a statio ...
invited him to stay at the Kronberger Artists' Colony in Kronberg im Taunus
Kronberg im Taunus (, ) is a town in the Hochtaunuskreis district, Hesse, Germany and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Before 1866, it was in the Duchy of Nassau; in that year the whole Duchy w ...
. He lived and worked there until 1920. He executed several municipal commissions in Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
from 1905 to 1913, including several large wall and ceiling decorations for various public buildings and designs for the Bürgersaale (Civic Hall) in the Rathaus. In 1920, he went to live with his son, a District Court Councillor, in Bergen.
His style may generally be described as impressionistic
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
, although he preferred scenes with large crowds in urban or indoor settings. His initial phase extended through the 1880s, when he developed an interest in more subtle displays of light and color. After 1902, he concentrated on large landscapes.
References
Further reading
* Josef A. Beringer: ''Ferdinand Brütt zum 70. Geburtstag des Künstlers, 13. Juli 1919.'' Velhagen & Klasing, Braunschweig 1919.
* August Wiederspahn: ''Die Kronberger Malerkolonie.'' Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1982, .
* Alexander Bastek: ''Ferdinand Brütt und das Städtisch-bürgerliche Genre um 1900'', VDG, Weimar, 2007 Descriptio
in the VDG catalog.
* Exhibition Catalog: ''Ferdinand Bütt. Erzählung und Impression.'' König, Cologne 2007, .
External links
*
ArtNet: More paintings by Brütt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brutt, Ferdinand
1849 births
1936 deaths
German genre painters
Painters from Hamburg
19th-century German painters
19th-century German male artists
German male painters
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists