Gerd Spitzer: Ludwig Richter's Meissen years 1828-1836

Description

Self-discovery and self-assertion
of a young painter
Letters to Carl Gustav Boerner
and diary entries

Ludwig Richter's numerous woodcut illustrations and his widely read autobiography "Lebenserinnerungen eines deutschen Malers" (Memoirs of a German Painter) made him one of the most famous German artists of the 19th century. However, before his appointment to the Dresden Academy of Art in 1836, he spent eight long years in Meissen, which were to shape his future life and work in many ways. For the painter Ludwig Richter, they became the most fruitful period of his life, as it was in Meissen that he created a large part of his painterly oeuvre with over 30 works.

Richter's letters to Carl Gustav Boerner, which are published in this volume, were largely written in those years, and they provide an entirely new insight into this period of intense self-questioning and self-discovery. Richter's diary entries from this period also bear witness to the ongoing struggle for clarity of thought in his artistic goals, which were essentially determined by the young artist's Christian faith. This reveals a depth of programmatic penetration that may come as a surprise in view of the widespread image of Richter. On the basis of the newly discovered sources and a comprehensive commentary, the introductory text pursues further thoughts on the life and work of the artist. Overviews of Ludwig Richter's biography in his Meissen years and a catalog raisonné of the artist's paintings from this period complete the picture of a period in his life that proved to be extremely important for the further development of the Dresden art professor who later became so famous. The primary aim of the publication is to make the sources accessible to a wider public and thus also to open up new possibilities for research into the artist and his work.