Theodor Martens (August 27, 1822, – October 1, 1884) was a German artist.

Life and work

Martens was born in

Wismar Wismar (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar () is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city of Mecklenburg after Rostock, Schwerin and ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He had nine children. He resided in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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 ...

Schwerin Schwerin (; Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch dialect, Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch Low German: ''Swerin''; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Zwierzyn''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Germ ...

and Portici, in addition to Wismar. Martens worked as a

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

until age 40 when he took up art as his full-time vocation. Martens studied with August Weber in Düsseldorf and

Émile Lambinet Émile Lambinet (1813, Versailles – 1877, Bougival) was a French painter of rural scenes. A student of Horace Vernet then Corot, he spent most of his life in Yvelines, at first in his birthplace of Versailles, then at Bougival Bougival () is ...

in Paris. His work was especially influenced by the Barbizon school masters such as

Corot CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly t ...

, Daubigny and Diaz. In 1874 he received a silver medal during a show at the London

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

. He died from

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

Portici Portici (; ) is a town and municipality (''comune'') of the Metropolitan City of Naples in the region of Campania in Italy. It has 51,351 inhabitants. Geography Portici lies at the foot of Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, about southeast of ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, aged 62. His paintings are in a realistic style that anticipates the

impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subjec ...

to follow. Many

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s and

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

subjects are included in his work. His works were considered very modern by contemporaries. Many examples of his work may be found today at the Schwerin State Art Museum in Schwerin, Germany and in

Schwerin Castle Schwerin Castle (, also known as ''Schwerin Palace'', ( or ) is a 19th-century ''Schloss'' built in the historicist style located in the city of Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state, Germany. It is situated on an island in the ...

in that northern German city. A painting by Martens was sold July 6, 2004, at auction at

Bonhams Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought t ...

in London for $790 (US) it was a 27.5 by 35 centimeter oil titled "A river at dusk", the auction report did not disclose a date for the painting.

Sources

Friedrich Schlie Friedrich Schlie (12 December 1839 – 21 July 1902) was a German art historian and archaeologist. Life As the son of a Kantor and teacher, Schlie was taught by private tuition until his graduation examination in Rostock in 1863. He then studied ...

: ''Beschreibendes Verzeichniss der Werke neuerer Meister in der Grossherzoglichen Gemälde-Gallerie zu Schwerin.'' Druck der Bärensprungschen Hofbuchdruckerei, Schwerin 1884
archive.org
* * ''Martens, Theodor.'' In: Hermann Alexander Müller: ''Biographisches Künstler-Lexikon.'' Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, Leipzig 1882, pg.355

.

External links

1822 births People from Wismar 1884 deaths Deaths from cholera in Italy 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters Realist painters Infectious disease deaths in Campania {{Germany-painter-stub