Hans Gude
Hans Gude | |
---|---|
Hans Fredrik Gude (March 13, 1825
Gude's artistic career was not one marked with drastic change and revolution, but was instead a steady progression that slowly reacted to general trends in the artistic world.
Gude spent forty-five years as an art professor and so he played an important role in the development of Norwegian art by acting as a mentor to three generations of Norwegian artists.
Over the course of his lifetime Gude won numerous medals, was inducted as an honorary member into many art academies, and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav.[3][6][7][8] He was the father of painter Nils Gude and watercolorist and illustrator Agnes Charlotte Guide. His daughter Sigrid married German sculptor Otto Lessing.[9]
Early life
Gude was born in Christiania in 1825 the son of Ove Gude, a judge, and Marie Elisabeth Brandt.[1][3][4]
Gude began his artistic career with private lessons from Johannes Flintoe, and by 1838 he was attending Flintoe's evening classes at the Royal School of Drawing in Christiania.[3] In the autumn of 1841 Johan Sebastian Welhaven suggested that the young Gude should be sent to Düsseldorf to further his education in the arts.[3][4]
Academy of Art in Düsseldorf
At the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf Gude encountered
As a student
Gude was finally accepted into the academy in the autumn of 1842 and joined Schirmer's landscape painting class where he made quick progress.[3][4] The landscape painting class at the academy was new at the time, having been founded in 1839 as a counterpart to the more long standing figure painting class.[3] At the time figure painting was considered a more prestigious genre than landscape painting as it was thought only through painting the human body could true beauty be expressed.[3]
Gude, along with most of the class of twelve, received a grade of "good" his first semester and was described as "talented".[3] On his report card for the 1843–44 school year he was the only student to be described as "very talented", and the report for his fourth year said that he "paints Norwegian scenery in a truthful and distinctive manner".[3]
While Gude was a student, two different trends in landscaping were developing at the academy: a romantic trend and a classical trend.[3] The romanticists depicted wild, untamed wildernesses with dark forests, soaring peaks, and rushing water to capture the terrifying and overpowering aspects of nature.[3] They used rich, saturated colors with strong contrast of light and shadow.[3] The classicists were more interested in recreating landscapes from the heroic or mythical past and often set them in the midst of religious or historical events.[3] The classicists focused on lines and clarity in their compositions.[3] It was through Achenbach – Gude's first teacher upon arriving in Düsseldorf – that he was exposed to the romanticist tradition, while it was through his classes with and later time teaching for Schirmer that he was exposed to the classicist traditions.[3]
In 1827 Schirmer and
I painted a large mountain view for which my studies of the Rondane Mountains provided the subject, and I had severe problems because Schirmer did not approve of the realistic rendering, and his suggestion that I should group the mountains more in accordance with the Classical ideal was impossible for me to accept.
— Hans Gude[3]
In Düsseldorf Gude met Carl Friedrich Lessing who, while initially aloof, became Gude's friend and colleague.[3] Their relationship was such a close one that Gude's eldest daughter eventually married one of Lessing's sons.[3] The two artists differed in style though, with Lessing painting dramatic, historical works while Gude never once introduced historical events into his own paintings.[3]
Gude served as a student teacher at the academy until 1844, before leaving to live in Christiania.[1][4] On July 25, 1850, Gude married Betsy Charlotte Juliane Anker (1830–1912), the daughter of General Erik Anker, in Christiania (today called Oslo).[1]
Professorship
In 1854 Gude was appointed the professor of landscape painting at the academy replacing his former teacher Schirmer.[3][4][10] Gude was twenty-nine when appointed, making him the youngest professor at the academy.[3] His appointment was partially political, in a conflict between Rhineland and Prussian interests Gude was seen as a neutral candidate because of his Norwegian roots.[3] Gude was recommended for the position by the current Director of the academy Wilhelm von Schadow, but only after Andreas Achenbach, Oswald Achenbach, and Lessing had refused the post due to lack of suitable pay.[3] In regards to his position and compensation, Gude wrote:
About this post of professor I can only say I cannot comprehend why I should not accept pay for being a teacher, since I really have to have pupils. All those who wished that I should be their teacher are here, and poor as church mice. If I become professor, they can now enter the Academy. I will in any case be here for many years, so I might just as well paint in a studio twice as big and grand as any private one, especially if I receive a salary into the bargain. When I become tired of it, I can always hand in my notice.
— Hans Gude[3]
Throughout his tenure, Gude had private pupils in addition to his normal classes.
Norwegian or German art
By the mid-19th century the academy in Düsseldorf had become a center for training Norwegian artists, but within Norway there arose a debate as to whether the art was truly Norwegian as it did not originate in Norway, and was in fact produced by artists who had been trained in Germany.[3] The debate was sparked by proposals to build an art school in Norway, and it was therefore essential for supporters of a Norwegian academy to argue that Norwegian values could not be instilled in the artists if they had to go abroad.[3]
In a letter to Jørgen Moe Gude writes that he see possibility for his own development in Düsseldorf, and that even if it would cause him to be known as a German artist instead of a Norwegian, he would not be ashamed of the fact.[3] In defense of Norwegian artists at the academy, Gude writes that they were not simply imitating German artists:
If we learn something from Achenbach and Lessing, it is certainly not to our detriment; no one has ever said about me or Tidemand or, so far as I know, any of us Norwegian Düsseldorfers that we copy and imitate.
— Hans Gude[3]
Gude was convinced that for Norwegian artists at the academy it was impossible to escape their heritage and that Norway influenced their art whether they wanted it to or not.[3] On this subject he wrote:
[...] and you, my compatriots in Norway, have no grounds for complaining that we have forgotten the dear, familiar and specific character with which God has endowed our land and our nation. That is so firmly entrenched in our being that it finds expression, whether we like it or not. Do not, therefore, insult us further with such [an accusation]; it hurts our feelings, and thereby proves how unfounded it is, for otherwise it would be easy to treat it with indifference.
— Hans Gude[3]
Von Schadow however argued the Gude's art was in fact German in an attempt to defend his nomination of Gude to succeed Schirmer.[3] He wrote of Gude that "His education is totally German, his style unwontedly elevated."[3]
Wales
Eføybroen, Nord-Wales National Gallery of Norway, Oslo |
---|
Many of Gude's peers moved on from the academy in Düsseldorf to other art institutes, but Gude decided to seek more direct contact with nature.
Gude reports that the British and Welsh landscape painters were disdainful of artists from
It was sad to leave the lovely yet wild scenery that had become so dear to us, and a peaceful, quiet home it had been. My English stay was of great benefit to me in that I freed myself from many of the prevailing studio maxims by being alone and in a landscape so new to me that it forced me to observe more keenly.
— Hans Gude[3]
While in Wales Gude was visited by
Baden School of Art
Fra Chiemsee[12] | |
---|---|
Artist | Hans Gude |
Year | 1868 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 145 cm × 208 cm (57 in × 82 in) |
Location | Private Collection |
In December 1863 Gude was offered and accepted a professorship at the Baden School of Art in Karlsruhe where he would once again succeed Schirmer, and so he left Wales.[3][4] Gude was hesitant to take the position as he felt that it was working for the enemy but was unable to support himself in Norway due to the lack of an art school.[3] He wrote about his thoughts on the position to Kjerulf, stating:
At this time I feel oppressively and profoundly what it means to float about the world without a mother country – now I have obtained a post, and shall serve to the best of my powers the country that may shortly be at open war with my own native land; I shall express no sympathies and be deaf to what goes on beyond the walls of my own studio; that which makes hearts at home beat faster will not exist for me; and how offensive and unbearable it will be to watch the enthusiasm displayed around me for the rights of a German nationality, while my own nation perhaps bleeds to death in a struggle for existence. On the other hand, how serious my commitments are to my wife and children; and I shall use my talents where I am permitted to – at home I can make no use of them, and in two to three years I would come to the end of my career and sink into deep misery with all my children – I am sure of that.
— Hans Gude[3]
It is suspected that Gude was offered the professorship due to a recommendation from Lessing.
In Karlsruhe Gude continued to faithfully reproduce the landscapes he saw, a style that he passed on to his students by taking them to Chiemsee to paint the lake en plein air.[3][4] While on these trips Gude and his pupils often encountered Eduard Schleich the Elder with his own students from Munich who were, as Gude described, only out to capture the mood of the scene and were skeptical of the advantages of painting in the sunshine.[3] Gude also took special interest in how light reflected in water while in Karlsruhe, as well as expanding his study of the human figure.[3] Although Gude rarely portrayed humans for their own sake, he began populating his paintings with convincing, if sometimes anatomically incorrect, individuals.[3]
Gude's painted Fra Chiemsee while at Karlsruhe.[3] The painting which was shown in Vienna was so enthusiastically received that it was purchased by the Kunsthistorisches Hofmuseum for display, won Gude a number of medals, and earned him membership in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.[3]
The school in Karlsruhe was founded by the
Berlin Academy of Art
In 1880 Gude accepted a position to lead the master studio in landscape painting at the Academy of Art in Berlin, a position which gave him a spot on the academy's Senate.[3][4] The Senate was responsible for upholding "all the artistic interests of the state" and membership was a mark of the highest official recognition of Gude's work.[3]
In 1895 the Christiania Art Society held a comprehensive retrospective of Gude's works including his paintings, oil studies, watercolors, sketches and etchings.
I believe that if Gude exhibited watercolours and study drawings, he would have the warmest admirers among painters. [...] Let it rather happen now, while there can be controversy and a row and some lively discussion about his art[...].
— Harriet Backer[3]
Gude would spend a few weeks each summer near the
As the century drew to a close the established art academies faced 'secession' movements from groups of artists looking to branch of into different style.[3] Gude rallied around his friend Anton von Werner in defending the academies, going so far as to mock "the so-called Symbolism" movement.[3] As Gude approached the end of his life he felt more and more unable to keep up with the changes in the art world.[3] After a disappointing exhibition in Kristiania in 1902 Gude wrote to Johan Martin Nielssen:
All I have heard about it [the exhibition] are your and
modernists is, and it is quite understandable that they want to 'take the helm' alone!— Hans Gude[3]
In 1880 Gude had between five and eight students, but this number had shrunk to two or three by 1890.
Gude retired from the Berlin Academy in 1901.[3][4] He died two years later in Berlin in 1903.[2][3][4]
Works
-
Landscape Study from Vågå, 1846
-
Tessefossen I Vaga I Middagsbelysning, 1848
-
Hardanger fjord
-
Under eketreet or Under the Oak (1858)
-
Spinnkusten längs Sörlandskusten (1872)
-
Hvile på stien or Resting on the path (1878)
-
Fisker fra Rügen, or Fishermen from Rügen, (1882).
-
Fishermen Hans Gude and Adolph Tidemand
-
Høifjell, 1857
-
Damer i solskinnet or Ladies in the sunshine (1883)
-
Kaien på Feste i nær Moss (1898)
Awards and honors
- 1852 – Gold medal at Berlin Exhibition[7]
- 1855 – Medal, 2nd class, Paris Exhibition[7]
- 1860 – Gold medal at Berlin Exhibition[7]
- 1861 – Medal, 2nd class, Paris Exhibition[7]
- 1867 – Medal, 2nd class, Paris Exhibition[7]
- 1873 – Gold medal at Vienna Exhibition for Nødhavn Ved Norskekysten[3]
- 1876 – Medal for A Fresh Breeze, Norwegian Coast and Calm, Christianiaford in Philadelphia at United States Centennial Commission International Exhibition[6][8]
- 1880 – Member of Berlin Academy of Art's Senate[3]
- 1894 –
Gude was also a member of the Order of the Zähringer Lion, Order of the Red Eagle, and the Order of Franz Joseph.[6]
Academy memberships
Gude earned membership in the following art academies:
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Haverkamp & Gude 1992, p. 59
- ^ a b c Haverkamp & Gude 1992, p. 60
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg ch ci cj ck cl cm cn co cp cq cr cs ct cu cv cw cx cy cz Haverkamp National Romanticism to Realism
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Minneapolis Institute of Arts Mirror of Nature
- ^ Gunnarsson 1998, p. 104
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Waters & Hutton 1879, p. 317
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Champlin & Perkins 1887, p. 183
- ^ a b Walker 1877, p. 105
- ^ Jansen 1940
- ^ Gunnarsson 1998, p. 105
- ^ Haverkamp & Gude 1992, p. 26
- ^ Haverkamp & Gude 1992, p. 30
References
- Champlin, John Denison; Perkins, Charles Callahan, eds. (1887), "Hans Fredrik Gude", Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, vol. 2 (Third ed.), New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (published 1912), p. 183, retrieved March 9, 2008
- Jansen, Ebba (1940), Slekten Gude i Norge [The Gude Family in Norway] (in Norwegian Bokmål), Bergen
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - "Hans Fredrik Gude". A Mirror of Nature: Nordic Landscape Painting 1840–1910. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Archived from the originalon May 16, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2008.
- Gunnarsson, Torsten (1998) [1998], Nordic Landscape Painting in the Nineteenth Century, trans. Nancy Adler, ISBN 0-300-07041-1
- Haverkamp, Frode (2003), "Hans Fredrik Gude", From National Romanticism to Realism in Landscape (in Norwegian), trans. Joan Fuglesang, Nasjonalgalleriet, ISBN 82-90744-87-0
- Haverkamp, Frode; Gude, Hans Fredrik (January 1992), Hans Gude (in Norwegian), OCLC 29047091
- Walker, Francis Amasa (1877), "588. Hans Gude, Norway.", United States Centennial Commission: International Exhibition, 1876, vol. XXVII, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., p. 105, retrieved March 9, 2008
- Waters, Clara Erskine Clement; Hutton, Lawrence (1879), "Hans Frederic Gude", Artists of the nineteenth century and their works: A handbook containing two thousand and fifty biographical sketches, vol. 1, Bostom: Houghton, Osgood and company, p. 317, retrieved March 9, 2008