The art of painting in the nineteenth century . ss chaos and proving himself a techniciansecond to none, but gave his opponents likewisethe chance of pointing to the undesirability ofpermitting ones delight in technical difficultiesto determine ones choice of a subject. Equally as great as Menzel, but only in a nar-rowly circumscribed field, Franz von Lenbach(1836-1904) vied with him in popular favor. Henot only confined himself to portraiture but waseven within this single branch of art restricted toa certain mode of representation, painting only theheads and treating everything else as unimp
The art of painting in the nineteenth century . ss chaos and proving himself a techniciansecond to none, but gave his opponents likewisethe chance of pointing to the undesirability ofpermitting ones delight in technical difficultiesto determine ones choice of a subject. Equally as great as Menzel, but only in a nar-rowly circumscribed field, Franz von Lenbach(1836-1904) vied with him in popular favor. Henot only confined himself to portraiture but waseven within this single branch of art restricted toa certain mode of representation, painting only theheads and treating everything else as unimpor-tant accessories. In his younger years his colorrivaled that of the great Venetians; later, how-ever, he painted only in browns. His women stillretained gayer colors, but they are not his mas-terpieces, although some of them, and especiallyhis pictures of children, are exceedingly charm-ing. His men have made his reputation, andwith them he will live. Lenbach is a psychologist. He read characterand painted it, without doing it, however, any. Franz von Lenbach Portrait of Mommsen GERMAN PAINTING 55 impersonal justice. In his pictures one does notsee Bismarck or Moltke or Liszt, but LenbachsBismarck and Lenbachs Moltke and LenbachsLiszt. His point of view, however, is alwaysinteresting, so that his pictures are gainers ratherthan losers. There may be better painters thanhe, and more brilliant men, but there are nonewho equal him in the power of drawing inefface-able images of well-known personages. If one hasseen a portrait by Lenbach, one cannot hence-forth think of that man in any other way. Andthis, it will be remembered, is the same praisethat was bestowed in antiquity on the OlympianZeus by Pheidias. Unlike Lenbach, Friedrich August von Kaul- bach (1850 ) is best known for his portraits of women. He seems to worship at the shrine ofwomanly beauty, and has the power of convinc-ing the spectator that this beauty is one of thebest and noblest forces in the world. The remaini
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidartofpaintin, bookyear1908
