Gustav Bauernfeind (; 4 September 1848, in

Sulz am Neckar Sulz am Neckar is a town in the Rottweil (district), district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Neckar, 22 km north of Rottweil, and 19 km southeast of Freudenstadt. Sulz am Neckar came in the poss ...

– 24 December 1904, in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

) was a German

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

, and architect. He is considered to be one of the most notable Orientalist painters of Germany.

Education and early career

Bauernfeind's father was a pharmacist who converted to Catholicism from Judaism. After completing his architectural studies at the

Polytechnic Institute 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 ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, he was in the architectural firm of Professor Wilhelm Bäumer and later in that of Adolph Gnauth, where he also learned painting. In his earlier paintings, Bauernfeind focused on local views of Germany, as well as motifs from Italy.

Painting the Levant

During his journey to the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

from 1880 to 1882, he became interested in the

Orient The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

and repeated his travels again and again. In 1896 he moved with his wife and son to

Ottoman Palestine The region of Palestine (region), Palestine is part of the wider region of the Levant, which represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia.Steiner & Killebrew, p9: "The general limits ..., as defined here, begin at the Plain of ' ...

and subsequently settled in

in 1898. He also lived and worked in Lebanon and Syria. His work is characterized primarily by architectural views of Jerusalem and the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

. The oil paintings of Bauernfeind are mostly meticulously crafted, intricately composed and almost photographically accurate cityscapes and images of known edifices. In addition, he produced landscape scenes and

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

. Bauernfeind had a heart defect that resulted in poor health and eventually death by heart attack at age 56. His wife, Elise, died three years later.

Reception

During his lifetime he was the most popular Orientalist painter of Germany, but would fade into irrelevance after his death. However, since the early 1980s, Bauernfeind was gradually rediscovered, with his paintings appearing at auctions with high prices. Thus, his oil painting ''The Wailing Wall'' was sold at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

in London for the equivalent of €326,000 in 1992. The same painting would reach at

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

in London the equivalent of €4.5 million in a later auction in 2007. In 1997, another oil painting of Bauernfeind, ''The Port of Jaffa'', was sold at the Van Ham Kunstauktionen in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

for 1,510,000 DM, thus becoming the most expensive 19th-century painting ever sold in Germany.

Legacy

At his birthplace in Sulz am Neckar, the life and work of the painter is commemorated by the Gustav Bauernfeind Museum with a large permanent exhibition. Gustav Bauernfeind grave

Work

Gallery

File:MarktJaffaGustavBauernfeind1887.jpg, ''Market at

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

'', 1877. File:Bauernfeind, Gustav - At the Entrance to the Temple Mount, Jerusalem - 1886.png, ''At the Entrance to the Temple Mount, Jerusalem'', 1886. File:The Wailing Wall by Bauernfeind.jpeg, '' The Wailing Wall'', 1904. File:Gustav Bauernfeind - Warden of the Mosque, Damascus (1891) (HQ image).jpg, ''Warden of the Mosque,

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

'', 1891. File:Gustav Bauernfeind - A Street Scene, Damascus (Sotheby's, ShafikGabrCollection) 001l2010.jpg, A Street Scene,

(late 19th Century) File:Gustav Bauernfeind - At the Dome of the Rock and the Fountain of Qayt Bay, Jerusalem (late 19thC) (Sotheby's) n11434-cwtmf-t1-02-a.jpg, At the

Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock () is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the List_of_the_ol ...

and the Fountain of Qayt Bay,

(late 19th Century) File:Gustav Bauernfeind - Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives at Sunrise (c 1902) (Sotheby's) l20022-bl8tn-01.jpg,

from the

Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet (; ; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Old City of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive, olive ...

at Sunrise (circa 1902) File:Canal Scene in Chioggia by Bauernfeind.jpeg, Canal Scene in

Chioggia Chioggia (; , ; ) is a coastal town and (municipality) of the Metropolitan City of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Geography The town is located on a small island at the southern entrance to the Venetian Lagoon about sou ...

Select list of paintings

* ''Castel Gandolfo am Albaner See,'' 1864 (Drawing) * ''Markt in Jaffa,'' 1877 (Oil painting) * ''Der Hafen von Jaffa'', 1888 (Oil painting) * ''Straßenszene in Damaskus,'' um 1887 (Oil painting, 51 × 68 cm) * ''Jaffa, Einziehung der türkischen Landwehr in Palästina,'' 1888 (Oil painting) * ''Die Klagemauer, Jerusalem,'' 1890 (Oil painting, 130 × 101 cm) * ''Straße in Jerusalem'' (Oil painting, 109 × 82 cm) * ''Ansicht der deutschen Kolonie in Haifa,'' 1898 (Oil painting) * ''Jerusalem, Blick von unten auf den Felsendom'' (Oil painting, 109 × 82 cm) * ''Eingang zum Tempelberg, Jerusalem'' (Oil painting, 102 × 70 cm) * ''Forecourt of the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus'' (Oil painting on panel, 47 ¼ x 36 ¼ in. (120.8 x 92.2 cm.) Painted in 1890.)

Books

* ''Die Reise nach Damaskus. 1888/89. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen des Orientmalers,'' herausgegeben von Hugo Schmid unter Mitarbeit von Otto Höschle, Tübingen und Basel 1996 ()

Bibliography

* Hugo Schmid: ''Der Maler Gustav Bauernfeind (1848–1904) und der Orient.'' Mit einer Einführung von Petra S. Versteegh-Kühner. Hauswedell, Stuttgart 2004, 208 (XX) S., * Hugo Schmid: ''Der Maler Gustav Bauernfeind. 1848–1904.'' H. Schmid, Sulz 1980, 149 S. * Alex Carmel, Hugo Schmid (Bearb.), Gustav Bauernfeind (Ill.): ''Der Orientmaler Gustav Bauernfeind. 1848–1904. Leben und Werk''/''The life and work of Gustav Bauernfeind, orientalist painter.'' Herausgegeben in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Gottlieb-Schumacher-Institut zur Erforschung des Christlichen Beitrages zum Wiederaufbau Palästinas im 19. Jahrhundert an der Universität Haifa, Israel. Hauswedell, Stuttgart 1990, 360 (XII) S., * Petra S. Kühner: ''Gustav Bauernfeind. Gemälde und Aquarelle.'' Monographien zur bildenden Kunst, Band 5. (Dissertationsschrift.) Lang, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, New York, Paris und Wien 1996, 315 (X) S., * Hugo Schmid, Otto Höschle (Bearb.), Gustav Bauernfeind (Autor): ''Die Reise nach Damaskus 1888/1889. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen des Orientmalers''. Francke, Tübingen 1996, 135 Seiten. . * Hugo Schmid: ''Der Orientmaler Gustav Bauernfeind in Italien''. Geiger, Horb 2008, 128 Seiten. .

References

;Attribution * ''This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the German Wikipedia.''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bauernfeind, Gustav 1848 births 1904 deaths People from Sulz am Neckar Artists from the Kingdom of Württemberg German people of Jewish descent 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters German orientalists Holy Land travellers Orientalism German Orientalist painters German male non-fiction writers German expatriates in the Ottoman Empire