Heinrich Carl Brandt
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Brandt-Selfportrait.jpg/200px-Brandt-Selfportrait.jpg)
(date unknown)
Heinrich Carl Brandt (11 November 1724, in Vienna - 6 May 1787, in Munich) was an Austrian-German court painter. He created portraits of several noble families in Mainz, Mannheim and Munich. He is probably best known for the ones commissioned by the House of Wittelsbach.[1]
Life and work
There is no reliable information about his family, although the landscape painter,
He had planned to complete his studies in Paris, but on his way there, he stopped in
In 1761, the Elector sent him to Mannheim to order stamps from the mint. While there, he visited the art galleries at Mannheim Palace and was so impressed by the works in their collection, he decided to move there to study them.[4] In 1764, he received another appointment as court painter, for Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria.[1] Five years later, when the private Mannheimer Zeichnungsakademie became a state institution, he was named its first Professor and Secretary. During his time there, he was married, but little is known of his wife or children, if any.[4]
Despite a regular salary, plus additional payments per portrait, in the mid-1770s he began to suffer from financial problems. He was said to live a lavish lifestyle, with several mistresses, and his wife apparently left him. The final blow came in 1778, when the Elector moved his court to Munich. He followed, three years later, but his situation failed to improve, due to the higher cost of living there, and a drinking problem, which sometimes left him unable to work.[1]
In 1787, he developed a close friendship with Gabriele Corva, the young daughter of the Elector's Castle Keeper, Franz Corva. The relationship was criticized as immoral, and brought his entire lifestyle into discussion. In May 1787, a loan was cancelled, not long before a major bill of exchange was coming due. Shortly after, he committed suicide by poisoning. He left a suicide note on the cancellation letter that read "Dieser Brief ist die Ursach meines Todes" (This letter is the cause of my death).[4]
Selected portraits
References
- ^ ISBN 9783110973440)
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link - ^ Johann Rudolf Füssli (1809), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Zweyter Theil, Part I A–C, Zürich: Orell, Füßli, p. 114 (Online)
- ^ Georg Kaspar Nagler, Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon oder Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Werken der Maler, Bildhauer, Baumeister, Kupferstecher, Formschneider, Lithographen, Zeichner, Medailleure, Elfenbeinarbeiter, etc, Vol.2, Börner – Cleoetas, E. A. Fleischmann, 1835, pg.106 (Google Books)
- ^ a b c d e Joseph August Beringer, "Der kurfürstl. Cabinettsportraitmaler Heinrich Karl Brandt", In: Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter, Vol.11-12, 1902 (Online)
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Constantin von Wurzbach: "Brand, Heinrich Karl." In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich (Biographical Lexicon of the Empire of Austria). Part 2 Verlag der typografisch-literarisch-artistischen Anstalt (L. C. Zamarski, C. Dittmarsch & Comp.), Vienna 1857, p. 112 (digitalised).
- Entry for Brandt @ Personendaten