Johann Jacob Gensler (21 January 1808,

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 ...

- 26 January 1845, Hamburg) was a German etcher and painter; specializing in

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

scenes and landscapes.

Life and work

His father was a gold plater. He received his first drawing lessons from his older brother, Günther, as did his younger brother, . This was followed by studies with Wilhelm Tischbein in

Eutin Eutin () is the district capital of Ostholstein, Eastern Holstein county located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As of December 2022, the town had some 17,000 inhabitants. History The name Eutin (originally Utin) is of Slavic ...

, then with

Gerdt Hardorff Gerdt Hardorff (11 May 1769, Steinkirchen, Lower Saxony, Steinkirchen - 19 May 1864, Hamburg) was a German painter, art collector and drawing teacher. He is sometimes referred to as The Elder to distinguish him from his son, Gerdt, who also beca ...

and Siegfried Bendixen in Hamburg. From 1828 to 1831, he attended the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...

. In 1832, he was one of the founding members of the . His etchings of sailors, and illustrations for the folk ballad, "Der Edelknabe und die Müllerin" (The Noble Boy and the Miller, from ''Lieder und Bilder'', 1844) were among his most popular. After the completion of reconstruction, following the

Great Fire of Hamburg The great fire of Hamburg began early on 5 May 1842, in Deichstraße and burned until the morning of 8 May, destroying about one third of the buildings in the Altstadt, Hamburg, Altstadt. It killed 51 people and destroyed 1,700 residences and se ...

, he designed the "certificates of thanks" that were presented to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, Sachsen-Meiningen,

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

, Nassau, the Netherlands and England; using a Medieval

miniature painting Miniature painting may refer to: * Miniature (illuminated manuscript), a small illustration used to decorate an illuminated manuscript ** Persian miniature, a small painting on paper in the Persian tradition, for a book or album ** Ottoman miniatur ...

technique. All three Gensler brothers were members of the . He was interred in the family grave at

Ohlsdorf Cemetery Ohlsdorf Cemetery ( or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemetery are c ...

. A street was named after them in Hamburg's

Barmbek Barmbek (), until 27 September 1946 ''Barmbeck'', is the name of a former village that was absorbed into the city of Hamburg, Germany. In 1951 it was divided into the quarters ''Barmbek-Süd'', ''Barmbek-Nord'' and ''Dulsberg'' in the borough ''Ha ...

district. In 2019, his works were part of a major exhibition: "Hamburger Schule – Das 19. Jahrhundert neu entdeckt", at the

Hamburger Kunsthalle The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. It consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaal) and ...

Sources

* Gerhard Ahrens: "Gensler, Jacob", In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Eds.): ''Hamburgische Biografie'', Vol.1. Christians, Hamburg 2001, pg.103 * Fritz Bürger: ''Die Gensler, drei Hamburger Malerbrüder des 19. Jahrhunderts'', Heitz, Straßburg 1888
Online
* Fritz Bürger: ''Studien zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte'': "Die Genseler, drei Hamburger Malerbrüder des 19. Jahrhunderts", 1916 * (Article on all three brothers) * Silke Reuther: ''Johann Jacob Gensler: Ein Maler aus Hamburg (1808-1845)'', Berlin 1998. * Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: "Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein und seine Schüler in Eutin", in: ''Nordelbingen'', Vol.81, 2012, pp. 39–71 * Henry A. Smith: "Mit den Augen eines Malers – Eutin und das östliche Holstein in den Briefen des jungen Jacob Gensler". In: ''Nordelbingen'', Vol.84, 2015, pp. 85–130

External links

More works by Gensler
@ ArtNet * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gensler, Jacob 1808 births 1845 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists 19th-century German etchers German genre painters German landscape painters Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni Painters from Hamburg