DOI issue:
No. 155 (February, 1906)
DOI article:Covey, Arthur Sinclair: A German painter: Prof. Ludwig Herterich
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20714#0065
Prof. Ludwig Herterich
He early went to Munich, where his elder brother,
the late Johann Herterich, who had become a
painter of note, gave him a place to work in his
studio. He also worked at the Royal Academy as
a pupil of Professor Barth and later of Professor
Dietz. A factor in Herterich's great progress was
his intimate friendship with a co-worker, Wilhelm
Durr. Later in his study he travelled with Durr
through Italy and to Paris. Of this period he
speaks with intense enthusiasm as being the happiest
days of his career.
His first pictures were scenes from the Peasant
Wars. These were followed by portraits of Florian
Geier, Countess Westerburg, and Johanna Steger.
At this time he managed to meet his expenses
by doing certain decorative work, conducting a
class in an art school in the daytime, and lecturing
on the figure in the evening. He found little time
for his own work, but between his various duties
he composed secretly The Mediceval Wedding
Procession, which met with some degree of success.
In 1896 Herterich was given a professorship in the
" Kunst-Schule" of Stuttgart, but two years later
he accepted the post of Regius Professor in ,the
Academy of Munich.
His most notable work is his Ulrich von Hiitten,
which was exhibited in the German section of the
Paris Exposition, and was afterwards purchased
for the Dresden Gallery, where it now hangs.
Here is a subject as old in spirit almost as the art of
painting itself, but with an interpretation as modern
perhaps, and as strong in its technical qualities, as
any picture painted in the last decade. The same
subject painted in earlier times would no doubt
have been filled with that spirit of languor which
eternally cries out for pity, but receives it not
from the layman of modern times. The spirit
of the black knight in Herterich's masterpiece
sends out no such wail. No; there he stands, all
of a man, strong in body and mind, defiant in
attitude, ready to defend his cause even unto
death.
The hardest and most cold-blooded man of affairs
must feel the power of this work. A picture with
a "story" does not meet the approval of the
modern critic, and rightly, too, if this is its sole
"the knight" (In the New Pinakothek, Munich) by ludwig herterich
45
He early went to Munich, where his elder brother,
the late Johann Herterich, who had become a
painter of note, gave him a place to work in his
studio. He also worked at the Royal Academy as
a pupil of Professor Barth and later of Professor
Dietz. A factor in Herterich's great progress was
his intimate friendship with a co-worker, Wilhelm
Durr. Later in his study he travelled with Durr
through Italy and to Paris. Of this period he
speaks with intense enthusiasm as being the happiest
days of his career.
His first pictures were scenes from the Peasant
Wars. These were followed by portraits of Florian
Geier, Countess Westerburg, and Johanna Steger.
At this time he managed to meet his expenses
by doing certain decorative work, conducting a
class in an art school in the daytime, and lecturing
on the figure in the evening. He found little time
for his own work, but between his various duties
he composed secretly The Mediceval Wedding
Procession, which met with some degree of success.
In 1896 Herterich was given a professorship in the
" Kunst-Schule" of Stuttgart, but two years later
he accepted the post of Regius Professor in ,the
Academy of Munich.
His most notable work is his Ulrich von Hiitten,
which was exhibited in the German section of the
Paris Exposition, and was afterwards purchased
for the Dresden Gallery, where it now hangs.
Here is a subject as old in spirit almost as the art of
painting itself, but with an interpretation as modern
perhaps, and as strong in its technical qualities, as
any picture painted in the last decade. The same
subject painted in earlier times would no doubt
have been filled with that spirit of languor which
eternally cries out for pity, but receives it not
from the layman of modern times. The spirit
of the black knight in Herterich's masterpiece
sends out no such wail. No; there he stands, all
of a man, strong in body and mind, defiant in
attitude, ready to defend his cause even unto
death.
The hardest and most cold-blooded man of affairs
must feel the power of this work. A picture with
a "story" does not meet the approval of the
modern critic, and rightly, too, if this is its sole
"the knight" (In the New Pinakothek, Munich) by ludwig herterich
45