Gebhard Fugel (14 August 1863 – 26 February 1939) was a German painter specializing in Christian themes. He is best known for his work as the leading artist of the ''Crucifixion Panorama'' in

Altötting Altötting (, , in contrast to "Neuötting, New Ötting"; , ) is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, capital of the Altötting (district), district Altötting of Germany. For 500 years it has been the scene of religious pilgrimages by Catholics in ...

Life and work

Fugel was born in Oberklöcken near

Ravensburg Ravensburg ( or ; Swabian: ''Raveschburg'') is a city in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg. Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and ...

, and grew up in

Upper Swabia Upper Swabia ( or ) is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.''Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.'' 19. Auflage. Band 16, 1991, p. 72. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Jura, Lake Con ...

. In Ravensburg, he was an apprentice of Theodor Schnell and Burkhard Edinger. From 1879 to 1885, he studied at the Kunstschule in Stuttgart with Alexander von Liezen-Mayer and

Claudius Schraudolph the Younger Claudius Schraudolph the Younger (4 February 1843 - 4 January 1902) was a German painter and illustrator. He produced full-scale paintings, woodcut illustrations and decorative paintings. He is known as "the Younger" to distinguish him from his un ...

, among others. While still a student, he began to focus on Christian motifs inspired by the works of 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 ...

. In 1885, his painting ''Christ Healing the Sick'' received favorable notice in an exhibition at the

Kunstverein München The Kunstverein München (km) is a non-profit art association located in the Hofgarten in Munich, Germany. It was founded in 1823 and is one of the oldest German art associations. The Kunstverein, a privately sponsored association with almost 1,3 ...

. This enabled him to exhibit more widely. In 1890, he moved to Munich permanently and participated in founding of the

German Society for Christian Art The German Society for Christian Art (German - ''Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst'' or ''DG'') is a "supra-regional, not-for-profit and independent cultural institution"Website der DG based in Munich. History In 1885, the sculptor Ge ...

(DGCK). He soon focused on

altarpiece An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, ...

s and large-format church murals. He created a panorama of the ''

Crucifixion of Christ The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being nailed to a cross.The instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus forming a "cruciform" or T-shaped structure. ...

'' for

Kevelaer Kevelaer (; Low Rhenish: ''Käwela'') is a town in the district of Kleve, in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is the largest Catholic pilgrimage location within north-western Europe. Over one million Marian devotees, mostly from Germany and ...

, a pilgrimage destination at the

Lower Rhine Lower Rhine (, ; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the Rhine) is the section of the Rhine between Bonn in Germany and the North Sea at Hook of Holland in the Netherlands, including the '' Nederrijn'' () within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta; alternat ...

, in 1895. He created a Panorama of Bethlehem in 1901, which was presented in Zürich, Switzerland. Both works are lost. In 1902/03, he was the leading artist of the team creating the ', a mural of 1140 square meter (12,270 square feet) of the

Passion of Jesus The Passion (from Latin , "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy Week. The ''Passion'' may include, amo ...

for a specially-built exhibition building in

. It is one of the last surviving

panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

s and is unusual for portraying a religious subject, rather than the customary historical scenes, usually battles. Fugel and the architect financed the project. The Panorama is a listed historic monument of Bavaria and the UNESCO. In 1905, he was named a royal professor. He created 136 religiously-themed , large format pictures displayed in classrooms for educational purposes. Many were also used as illustrations for school texts and various other books. Fugel died in

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 ...

. Streets have been named after him in Ravensburg,

Weingarten Weingarten may refer to: Places * Weingarten, Württemberg, Germany, a town ** Weingarten Abbey * Weingarten (Baden), Germany, a municipality * Weingarten, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, a municipality * Weingarten, Thuringia, Germany, a village an ...

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...

, AltöttingGebhard-Fugel-Weg, Altötting
meinestadt.de and Munich. The was established by his grandson, Gebhard Streicher, in 1979 and is awarded every three years by the DGCK.

Paintings

File:Wallfahrtskapelle St. Sebastian (Haisterkirch).jpg, ''Saint Sebastian'' File:Fugel David gegen Goliath.jpg, ''David and Goliath'' File:Gebhard Fugel Krankenheilung 1885.jpg, ''Christ Healing the Sick'' (1885 version) File:Gebhard Fugel An den Wassern Babylons.jpg, ''By the Waters of Babylon'' File:RV Liebfrauenkirche Gemälde Fugel Brotvermehrung.jpg, Ravensburg, Liebfrauenkirche, Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, 1909

References

Sources

* Ludwig Baur: "Der Kreuzweg von Gebhard Fugel". In: ''Archiv für christliche Kunst''. 28. Jg. 1910, pgs.4–8
Online
* Ludwig Baur: "Die Fugelschen Fresken in der kath. Stadtpfarrkirche zu Ravensburg". In: ''Archiv für christliche Kunst''. 28. Jg. 1910, pgs. 65–66, 73–76, 81–82 and 92–95
Online
* Oskar Döring-Dachau: "Gebhard Fugel" In: ''Die christliche Kunst'', 6. Jg. 1909–1910, pgs. 133–143
Online
* Bernd Feiler: "Der Blaue Reiter und der Erzbischof. Religiöse Tendenzen, christlicher Glaube und kirchliches Bekenntnis in der Malerei Münchens von 1911 bis 1925". Dissertation, LMU München, 2002
Online
* Karl Muth: "Von christlicher Malerei und ihren Schöpfern". In: ''Hochland – Monatsschrift für alle Gebiete des Wissens, der Literatur und Kunst''. Kösel, Kempten und München, 4. Jg. 1906–1907, Vol. I, pgs.60–66
Online

External links

Panorama Kreuzigung Christi
* *
Gemälde: Lasset die Kindlein zu mir kommen
Westfalen Museum
Gebhard Fugel's 'An den Wassern Babylons'
jerusalem.nottingham.ac {{DEFAULTSORT:Fugel, Gebhard 1863 births 1939 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists Religious painters German muralists Panoramas Christian artists People from Swabia (Bavaria) 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists

Life and work

Paintings

References

Sources

Further reading

External links