Fritz Stoltenberg (7 April 1855 -13 November 1921) was a German landscape and

marine painter Marine art or maritime art is a form of figurative art (that is, painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture) that portrays or draws its main inspiration from the sea. Maritime painting is a genre that depicts ships and the sea—a genre parti ...

. After a summer with the

Skagen Painters The Skagen Painters () were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the village of Skagen, the northernmost part of Denmark, from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen was a summer destination whose scenic nature, local mi ...

in 1884, he returned to Kiel where he painted and sketched the old town and the harbor, publishing many of his illustrations in local magazines.

Early life

Born in 1855 as the son of a sea captain in the north German town of

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, by the age of 17 Stoltenberg had already demonstrated his artistic talents with sketches of his home town and its idyllic surroundings. Thanks to his studies at the academies of

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

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 ...

and

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, he became a skilled draftsman and landscape painter, supplemented by extensive travels to Italy, Algeria, France, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands."Ausstellungarchiv: Fritz Stoltenberg (1855–1921). Ein Landschafts- und Marinemaler aus Kiel"
, Sdat- & Schifffahrtsmuseum, Kiel. Retrieved 24 October 2013.

Career

In 1882, Stoltenberg became associated with the painters who gathered each summer in Egernsund on the north coast of

Flensburg Firth Flensburg Firth or Flensborg Fjord (; ) is the westernmost inlet of the Baltic Sea. It forms part of the border between Germany to the south and Denmark to the north, on the eastern side of Schleswig Holstein and Jutland, respectively. Its leng ...

to paint and sketch in the open air. He was the only Egernsund artist to join the

in the far north of

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, arriving in

Skagen Skagen () is the northernmost town in Denmark, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in North Denmark Region, Nordjylland, north of Frederikshavn and northeast of Aalbo ...

in 1884. There his painting benefitted from his associations with P.S. Krøyer,

Michael Ancher Michael Peter Ancher (9 June 1849 – 19 September 1927) was a Danish Realism (art movement), realist artist, widely known for his paintings of fishermen, the Skagerak and the North Sea, and other scenes from the Danish fishing community in Skag ...

and

Oscar Björck Oscar Gustaf Björck (15 January 1860 – 5 December 1929) was a Swedish painter and a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. Biography Born in Stockholm, from 1877 to 1882, Björck was a student of Edvard Perséus at the Academy where h ...

. It is believed his photographs of a lunch in the garden of the Anchers house on Markvej in Skagen in 1884 may have served P.S. Krøyer as a basis for his painting ''

Hip, Hip, Hurrah! ''Hip, Hip, Hurrah!'' (Danish: ''Hip, hip, hurra! Kunstnerfest på Skagen,'' ) is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1888 by Danish painter Peder Severin Krøyer. Description The work shows various members of the Skagen Painters: a group of Danish ...

''."Skagen i 1880'erne og 90'erne"
Skagens Museum. Retrieved 24 October 2013. After making a name for himself as a ''plein air'' painter, in 1889 Stoltenberg married Anna Scharenberg from a well-to-do Hamburg family, settling in his home town of Kiel. There he painted scenes of the city and its harbor, publishing some 2,000 illustrations, mainly engravings, in the more popular weeklies of the day. Of particular note are his sketches of the old town and the fishing village of Alt Ellerbek, not to mention his illustrations of the latest developments in marine engineering. He also painted the German fleet and its crews sailing on the Kiel Firth. In 1894, together with

Georg Burmester Georg Burmester (4 December 1864, Barmen - 30 June 1936, Heikendorf) was a German Impressionist painter. Life and work He was born to Adolf Burmester, Director of the local Realschule, and Charlotte Henriette Marie née Ritter. From 1881 to 188 ...

Hans Olde Johannes Wilhelm (Hans) Olde (27 April 1855, Süderau – 25 October 1917, Kassel) was a German painter and art school administrator. Life He originally planned to follow family tradition and become a farmer but, over his father's strong o ...

and

Julius Fürst Julius Fürst (; 12 May 1805, Żerków, South Prussia – 9 February 1873, Leipzig), born Joseph Alsari, was a Jewish German oriental studies, orientalist and the son of noted maggid, teacher, and Hebrew grammarian Jacob Alsari. Fürst was a dis ...

, he founded the Schleswig-Holstein Cultural Association which he chaired until 1900. In 1914, he retired to

Schönberg Schönberg () may refer to: Places Austria *Schönberg im Stubaital, a municipality in the district of Innsbruck-Land, Tyrol *Schönberg am Kamp, a town in the district of Krems-Land, Lower Austria Belgium *Schönberg (Sankt-Vith), a part o ...

where he died in 1921.

References

Literature

*Tellre Wolf-Timm, Doris Tillmann: ''Fritz Stoltenberg – Ein Landschafts- und Marinemaler aus Kiel'', Bossen, Heizte, 2009, *

External links

Entry on Stoltenberg
@ the

Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek The ''Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek'' (German Digital Library) or DDB is a virtual library in the German language which networks 30,000 cultural and research institutions and aims to make them freely accessible to the public using a common platfo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoltenberg, Fritz 1855 births 1921 deaths Skagen Painters German marine artists Artists from Kiel Painters from Schleswig-Holstein 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters German artists