August Leu

{{short description|German painter}}

File:August Wilhelm Leu - Sonniger Tag an einem norwegischen Fjord (1862).jpg

August Wilhelm Leu (24 March 1818 – 20 July 1897) was a German landscape painter of the Romantic school. Most of his pictures are large-format and depict scenes in Norway and the Alps.

Biography

Leu was born in Münster. He was a pupil of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, a landscape painter of the Düsseldorf school.A. Hk., "Leu, August Wilhelm", Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon, 2nd ed. (1915–30), Volume XV: Kvadratrod – Ludmila, p. 724, [https://runeberg.org/salmonsen/2/15/0739.html online] at Project Runeberg {{in lang|da}}.Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 6th ed. (1902–13), Volume 12: L – Lyra, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zYBMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA456 pp. 456–57] {{in lang|de}}.

Leu travelled in Norway in 1843 and 1847, and later travelled widely in the Alps. His Norwegian paintings raised awareness in Germany of that country's scenery. He lived for a time in Brussels, then returned to Düsseldorf; in 1855 he received an honourable mention at the Paris Exposition.Zeitschrift für Bauwesen 6 (1856) [https://books.google.com/books?id=jz8_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA211 p. 212] {{in lang|de}}. In 1882 he moved to Berlin, where he became a royal professor and a member of the Academy of Art;Catalogue of the Art Department of the Eighth Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, 1880, Cincinnati: Robert Clarke, 1880, {{OCLC|229799766}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=E51AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5 p. 5]. he was also a member of the Vienna, Amsterdam and Brussels Academies."Leu, August (Wilhelm)", Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, ed. John Denison Champlin, Jr. and Charles C. Perkins, (1913 ed.), New York: Scribner's, {{OCLC|269766361}}, Volume 3, [https://books.google.com/books?id=EdNHAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA72 p. 72].Clara Erskine Clement Waters and Laurence Hutton, Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works: A Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches, 5th ed. Boston: Osgood, 1889, {{OCLC|78151561}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7aEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA63 p. 63]. He received several gold medals in Berlin and was awarded the Belgian Order of Leopold.

His son, also named August Leu (1852–76) studied under him and was a landscape and animal painter. Leu died in Seelisberg, Switzerland.

{{Clear}}

Selected works

  • Hardangerfjord im Sonnenlicht (1849), Kunstverein Bremen (1849), now Private Collection in Norway
  • Norwegian Landscape with Waterfall (1849)
  • Sognefjord (1849)
  • Hohe Göll at Berchtesgaden (1859)
  • Oeschinen Lake (1876)
  • Queen Joanne's Palace at Naples (1886)
  • Pool at Blankenburg in the Harz Mountains (1888)
  • On the Engstlenalp (1893)
  • Königsee and Watzmann
  • Norwegian High Plateau
  • Sunset on the Coast at Sorrento

{{Clear}}

File:August Wilhelm Leu - Alpiner Berggipfel (1896).jpg|Alpine Peak (1896)

File:August Wilhelm Leu - Blick von der Wengerenalp auf Eiger und Mönch (1865).jpg|View of the Eiger and the Mönch from the Wengerenalp (1865)

File:August Wilhelm Leu - Fjordlandschaft mit Gletscher und Rentieren (1896).jpg|Fjord Landscape with Glacier and Reindeer (1896)

File:August Wilhelm Leu - Norwegische Fjordlandschaft (1849).jpg|Norwegian Fjord Landscape (1849)

File:August Wilhelm Leu Matterhorn.jpg|Matterhorn

References

{{Reflist}}