Alexander Michelis (25 December 1823, in Münster – 23 January 1868, in Weimar) was a German landscape painter.

Alexander Michelis by G. & A. Overbeck (firm), c. 1868

Biography edit

His father, Franz Michelis (1762–1835), was a draftsman and engraver. From 1843 to 1851, he studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under the tutelage of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer. While there, he became a member of the Malkasten painters' association and succeeded Hermann Heinrich Becker as its Secretary[1]

He spent ten years in Düsseldorf as a free-lance artist, but also gave private art lessons; notably to Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Infanta Antónia of Portugal.[2] In 1863, he was appointed a Professor at the Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar, where he took the position originally held by Arnold Böcklin. He remained there until his death.

His older brother, Friedrich, was a well-known philosopher and theologian.

References edit

  1. ^ "Aus dem Malkasten zu Düsseldorf", by Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter. In : Die Gartenlaube, 1863, #37
  2. ^ "Antonia Maria Ferdinanda". In: Jochen Schmidt-Liebich: Lexikon der Künstlerinnen 1700–1900. Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-598-11694-0

Further reading edit

 
Cows in a Forest Clearing
  • Bund. (1885), "Michelis, Alexander", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 21, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, p. 693
  • Exhibition catalog: Hinaus in die Natur!: Barbizon, die Weimarer Malerschule und der Aufbruch zum Impressionismus, Gerda Wendermann (ed.) Verlag Kerber Art, 2010,ISBN 978-3-8667-8381-2
  • Exhibition catalog: Die Weimarer Malerschule: Zum Gedächtnis der Gründung der Weimarer Kunstschule im Jahre 1860. Weimarer Kunstsammlungen, 1960

External links edit

 
Alexander Michelis, portrait by Arnold Böcklin (1846)

  Media related to Alexander Michelis at Wikimedia Commons