Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld - From a family of artists

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld was born in Leipzig on 26th March 1794. As the scion of a family of artists - his father was the painter and etcher Veit Hanns Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1764-1841), and his older brothers Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1788-1853) and Eduard Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1790-1819) also became painters - he came into contact with the visual arts at an early age. Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld received his first painting lessons from his father, and after attending the Thomasschule in Leipzig, began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1811. During his time as a student, he became loosely associated with the circle of artists around Ferdinand Johann von Olivier (1785-1841) and thus with the Nazarenes. In March 1817 he was accepted into the Lukasbund, to which his new artist friends also belonged, and in the summer of the same year accompanied the brothers Ferdinand Johann von Olivier and Friedrich von Olivier (1791-1859) on a journey through the Salzburg region.

Development as a landscape painter; professor in Munich

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld's development as a landscape painter benefited greatly from travelling with the Olivier brothers, but he also gathered valuable impressions during a trip to Italy, which he undertook with the poet Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827). After stays in Venice and Florence, he finally reached Rome, where he met and joined the Nazarenes living there. In 1826 he met Carl Gottlieb Peschel (1798-1879) in Rome, with whom he developed a close friendship, and returned the following year to Munich, where the Bavarian King Ludwig I had appointed him professor at the Academy of Fine Arts. In addition to this professional success, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld found happiness in his private life with the stepdaughter of his friend Ferdinand von Olivier, Marie Heller, with whom he had six sons and three daughters, including the tenor Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1836-1865) - who was chosen by Richard Wagner (1813-1883) as the first Tristan singer for the premiere of his opera Tristan und Isolde and became a legend due to his tragically early death - and Karl Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1830-1895), who later headed the Royal Bavarian State Railways as General Director.

The most important biblical illustrator alongside Gustave Doré

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld made a name for himself as a landscape painter and was soon regarded as the greatest master of this discipline among the Nazarenes. His depictions of the Alban and Sabine mountains are still considered to be among the greatest works of landscape painting in the 19th century, achieving the rare feat of uniting naturalistic and idealistic visualisation. The focus on religious motifs, typical of Nazarene art, led to a large number of corresponding pictures, among which those of the Bible in particular had a broad impact. The woodcuts were immensely popular across all denominational boundaries and made the artist the most important Bible illustrator of the 19th century alongside Gustave Doré (1832-1883). Although he was a Lutheran, von Carolsfeld also painted typically Catholic motifs with numerous images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Together with Carl Grüneisen (1802-1878) and Karl Schnaase (1798-1875), he published the Christian Art Journal for Church, School and Home. Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld received prizes and honours for his art, including the Order Pour le mérite for Sciences and Arts in 1842, an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1846 and admission to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1867.

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld died in Dresden on 24th May 1872.