Georg Philipp Rugendas (1666-1742) Paintings and Drawings

Georg Philipp Rugendas is considered the most important battle painter of the late Baroque period in Germany. His battle and camp scenes, painted against the backdrop of the War of the Spanish Succession, were highly esteemed at the European courts from Vienna to Copenhagen.

After studying in Vienna, Venice and Rome, Rugendas, who came from a family of clock and compass makers in Augsburg, settled in Augsburg in 1695. Through his extraordinarily great productivity, which remained almost unbroken until his death, the painter, engraver, publisher and academy director laid the foundation for an artistic tradition that would last until his great-grandchildren.

The life and work of this versatile artist are made accessible for the first time by this work. The focus is on the stylistic and typological study of the paintings, with the subsequent oeuvre catalogue also taking into account the paintings of the family workshop, students and imitators. The inclusion of preparatory drawings not only establishes a chronology of the paintings, which are generally undated, but also traces their development from the individual study after nature to the immediate preparatory drawing.

In connection with Rugendas' apparently independent work as an artist from the imperial city of Augsburg, the question is explored as to why the majority of his battle paintings do not depict concrete war history, but rather bear genre-like, universal traits.

A detailed reconstruction of the collection history of his paintings assigns Rugendas a firm place in the galleries of often important patrons such as Count Lothar Franz von Schönborn in Pommersfelden or Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, but also in bourgeois and clerical collections.

Band 64: Anke Charlotte Held

Georg Philipp Rugendas (1666–1742)

Gemälde und Zeichnungen

496 S., 127 s/w, 6 Farbabb., EUR 50,–

ISBN 978-3-89235-064-4

Available here