Adolf Schill

Adolf Schill, often also Adolph Schill (14 May 1848 – 10 November 1911), was a German architect, interior designer, artisan, illustrator and painter of the historism. As a university lecturer he worked at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf between 1880 and 1911, thus helping to shape the later phase of the Düsseldorf school of painting. Students of sculpture also studied with him.

Life

Born in Stuttgart, Schill attended the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart from 1864 to 1870,[1] where he was introduced by the eclectic Christian Friedrich von Leins[2] was taught architecture and Adolf Gnauth in stylistics. From 1870 to 1874, he deepened his knowledge of architecture while building the Vienna Ringtheater under Emil von Förster.[3] He then embarked on a two-year Grand Tour to Italy, which had a lasting impact on his sense of beauty. He later travelled to Italy again several times. Between 1876 and 1880, Schill – as successor to Wilhelm Sophonias Bäumer – edited the journal Gewerbehalle, the "organ for progress in all branches of the art industry" published by the Stuttgart Engelhorn Verlag.[4] In 1880 Schill, succeeding Wilhelm Lotz, who had died suddenly in 1879 – became professor of decoration and ornamentation at the Düsseldorf Art Academy; he held this position until the end of his life in 1911. As head of a so-called "decoration" or "architecture" class, he taught many students basic knowledge of style and architecture, which was indispensable for the execution of monumental murals.[5] He compiled a Collection of Gypsabgüsse aus kunstgewerblichen und dekorativen Mustern for teaching purposes.[6] Schill's watercolour paintings, which he produced after travel studies, had a great influence on his students.[7] Like many other players in Düsseldorf's art scene, Schill was a member of the Malkasten. In Düsseldorf's public life, Schill appeared as a judge in competitions for the erection of monuments, such as the Moltkedenkmal.[8]

In 1882, Schill married in the Trinitatiskirche in Elberfeld Emmy Simons (30 August 1858 in Elberfeld), a niece of the architect Walter Kyllmann,[9] who bore him the children Lisbeth, Adolf, Addy and Lore Schill. In 1889, Schill lived with his family at Blumenstraße 12, at that time a street in a Gründerzeit new building district Düsseldorf.[10] In January 1912, Schill was honoured by a memorial exhibition at the Kunstgewerbemuseum Düsseldorf. The commemorative speech was given by Heinrich Kraeger.[11]

Work

Das Theater des Pompejus mit dem Tempel der Venus Victrix, book illustration
[12]
Aula of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, ca. 1900
Pin mosaics on the façades of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
Mural Stammbaum der bergischen Herrscher in the ancestral hall of the Burg castle
Right bank pier of the old Oberkasseler Brücke after completion, 9 June 1898
Bridge railing of the old Oberkasseler Brücke (left),[13] Today parapet on Spee’scher Graben in Carlstadt, photo 2012

As a painter, Schill was known at the end of the 19th century, alongside Adolf Seel, above all for watercolours depicting "architectural pieces",[14] particularly rendering architectural impressions from Italy. In the field of arts and crafts, he created illustrations as well as so-called ornamental pieces and vignettes as book decorations from the 1870s onwards.[15] After a study trip to Belgium in 1870, he published the travel sketches he made there with architectural motifs.[16] In 1891, Schill was called in to design the Peace Hall in the Osnabrück Town Hall.

As an architect, Schill accepted various private commissions. A special opportunity for him to realise his architectural ideas came at the end of the 19th century when he was commissioned by the banker and city councillor Moritz Leiffmann (1853–1921) for the construction of the upper-class Villa Leiffmann in the Düsseldorf district of Golzheim. Schill designed an eclectici building with a [double-tower façade that was reminiscent of a villa of Italian Renaissance.[17] In Düsseldorf, the painter Georg Oeder also consulted him for the interior decoration of his Wohnhaus am Hofgarten. Until the 1890s, Schill – together with Peter Janssen – developed the decorative furnishings for the assembly hall of the New Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf, which was completed in 1879. The widely acclaimed Gesamtkunstwerk was shown to interested strangers for a fee in the late 1890s. In the course of his "academy reform" around 1930, academy director Walter Kaesbach had the historical furnishings of the auditorium removed except for Janssen's paintings and had the walls decorated in gold, a measure criticised by Paul Clemen in 1944 as unjustified.[18]

Another collaboration between Schill and Janssen resulted in gravestones in Kleve, Dortmund and Düsseldorf.[19] He also designed the silver table ornaments presented by the Prussian Rhine Province and the Province of Westphalia to the German Crown Prince and Crown Princess for their Wedding in 1881.[20] In 1894, maiolica stoves were created in Meissen for the King's Room and the Great Hall of the Society Casino zu Coblenz according to designs by Schill.[21] In the years 1896 to 1898 Schill designed the historistic Portal architecture of the Oberkasseler Brücke.[22] The historicist bridge railing designed by Schill was part of the first Oberkassel Bridge built shortly before the turn of the century, which was blown up by retreating German troops in March 1945. After the makeshift bridge was dismantled in 1973, parts of the ornately forged bridge railing were reused as parapets on Poststraße (Spee'scher Graben) and on Haroldstraße (Schwanenspiegel, Parkanlage am Ständehaus). Around 1900, Schill created the pinmosaics on the outer facade of the upper floors of the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts.[23][24]

From 1901 to 1902 Schill, together with Josef Kleesattel held the overall architectural direction of the Industrie- und Gewerbeausstellung Düsseldorf,[25] after the first artistic director Georg Thielen had died unexpectedly in February 1901. Together with Kleesattel, he also completed the design and construction work for its main industrial hall, in the design of which Kaiser Wilhelm II had personally intervened.[26] He also designed, together with Kleesattel, the pavilion of the Rheinische Metallwaren- und Maschinenfabrik, built on a footprint of 30 metres by 40 metres, which also stood on the main avenue of the exhibition.[27] Until 1904 he was head of the building department of the International Art Exhibition and Great Horticultural Exhibition in Düsseldorf. Between 1896 and 1908, Schill – together with the provincial conservator Paul Clemen, the academy professors Eduard von Gebhardt and Peter Janssen the  Ä. as well as other artists - supported the painting of the Knights' Hall of Schloss Burg an der Wupper. With his collaborator Johannes Osten, he created a family tree of the Bergian rulers in Gothic ornamentation.[28][29]

Students

References

  1. ↑ Archival reference to the Prüfungsarbeit im Baufach des Ingenieurs Adolf Schill, 1870, Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, E 143, Bü 671 in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library), retrieved 17 September 2021
  2. ↑ Horst Ossenberg: Was bleibt, das schaffen die Baumeister. The Württemberg court and state building industry from the 15th to the 20th century. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8334-0633-X, p. 66.
  3. ↑ Herrmann A. L. Degener: Wer ist wer? the German Who's Who. 4th edition 1909, p. 1224.
  4. ↑ Entry Adolf Schill in the Historical Register of Architects "archthek", section Scheben – Schittenhelm, retrieved 17 September 2021
  5. ↑ Carsten Roth in Hans Paffrath (ed.): Lexikon der Düsseldorfer Malerschule 1819–1918. Vol. 3: Nabert-Zwecker. Published by the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf in Ehrenhof and the Galerie Paffrath. Bruckmann, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7654-3011-0, pp. 200 ff. with figs. 256 and 257.
  6. ↑ Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (ed.): Repertorium der bei der Kgl. Kunstakademie zu Düsseldorf aufbewahrten Sammlungen. Verlag A. Bagel, Düsseldorf 1883, p. VI.
  7. ↑ Friedrich Schaarschmidt: Die Geschichte der Düsseldorfer Kunst, insbesondere im XIX. Jahrhundert (published by the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen) Verlag August Bagel, Düsseldorf 1902, p. 353, Zur Geschichte der Düsseldorfer Kunst
  8. ↑ Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, vol. 34, 1889, p. 155.
  9. ↑ Genealogy of Emmy Simons in the portal gw.geneanet.org, retrieved 17 September 2021
  10. ↑ Entry in the Adreß-Buch der Oberbürgermeisterei Düsseldorf 1889 in portal adressbuecher.net, retrieved 23 December 2013
  11. ↑ Christoph auf der Horst: Kraeger, Alexander August Heinrich. Pseudonym: Erich Ekkehard. In Christoph König (ed.), unter Mitarbeit von Birgit Wägenbaur among others: Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950. vol. 2: H–Q. De Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015485-4, p. 998 (Adolf Schill at Google Books).
  12. ↑ Illustration by Adolf Schill in Hermann Bender: Rom und das römische Leben im Alterthum. Verlag der Laupp'schen Buchhandlung, Tübingen 1879 (first edition with nine art supplements).
  13. ↑ Boris Becker: Düsseldorf in frühen Photographien 1855–1914. Schirmer/Mosel 1990, subtitle to Abb. 82
  14. ↑ Kunstausstellungen d. J. 1890 in Deutschland (Dresden). In Meyers Konversationslexikon, 18th volume, annual supplement 1890/91, p. 542 (Online)
  15. ↑ See for example overview Vollbilder in Rudolf von Stillfried-Rattonitz, Bernhard von Kugler: Die Hohenzollern und das deutsche Vaterland. Obituary, Europäischer Geschichtsverlag, Book on Demand, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86382-698-7 (Online)
  16. ↑ Adolph Schill: Architektonische Reiseskizzen aus Belgien. Verlag Emil Hochdanz, Stuttgart 1870 (Online)
  17. ↑ Falk Wiesemann: Steiler Aufstieg ins Großbürgertum. The Villa Leiffmann in Düsseldorf (PDF) In Kalymnos, Contributions to German-Jewish History from the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute, 3rd volume 2000, Extrablatt, p. 23; retrieved from the portal steinheim-institut. de on 23 December 2013
  18. ↑ Wend von Kalnein: Die Düsseldorfer Malerschule. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1979, ISBN 3-8053-0409-9, p. 180.
  19. ↑ Dietrich Schubert: Die Kunst Lehmbrucks. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1990, p. 77.
  20. ↑ Andreas Sassen, Claudia Sassen:The Origin of the History Paintings in the Knight's Hall of Burg Castle on the Wupper. Excursus/Appendix In Contributions to local history, Solingen 2009, p. 27; retrieved 17 September 2021
  21. ↑ Werner Wilhelm Weichelt: Casino zu Coblenz 1808–1908. Verlag Gebrüder Breuer, 1908, p. 55.
  22. ↑ Historic photo of the portal architecture (1910) Archived 2013-12-25 at the Wayback Machine on bilderbuch-duesseldorf.de, retrieved 17 September 2021
  23. ↑ Wilhelm Avenarius: Düsseldorf und Bergisches Land. Landscape, history, folklore, culture, art. (Bibliothek Deutsche Landeskunde, Abteilung Westdeutschland, vol. 2.) Glock and Lutz, Nuremberg 1982, p. 231.
  24. ↑ Willy Weyres (1980). Eduard Trier, Willy Weyres (ed.). Hochschulbauten. Vol. 2. Architektur: II, Profane Bauten u. Städtebau. Düsseldorf: Schwann. pp. 155–173, dazu pp. 169 f. ISBN 3-590-30252-6. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  25. ↑ Friedrich Schaarschmidt: Zur Geschichte der Düsseldorfer Kunst, insbesondere im XIX. Jahrhundert. (published by the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen) Verlag August Bagel, Düsseldorf 1902, p. 353, Zur Geschichte der düsseldorfer Kunst; insbesondere im XIX. Jahrhundert. Hrsg. von Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen at the Internet Archive
  26. ↑ Rheinisch-Westfälische Industrie- und Gewerbeausstellung Düsseldorf 1902. at kmkbuecholdt.de; retrieved 17 September 2021.
  27. ↑ Alexander Fils: Die 'Kleine Weltausstellung' in Düsseldorf 1902 in alten Ansichten. Zaltbommel 1982, ISBN 978-90-288-1865-1, no. 35. (digitalisat of an extract Archived 2016-01-24 at the Wayback Machine)
  28. ↑ Andreas Sassen, Claudia Sassen: [The Origin of the History Paintings in the Knights' Hall of Burg Castle on the Wupper. In Contributions to local history. Solingen 2009, pp. 9ff.
  29. ↑ Adolf Schill: Geschichtliche Erläuterungen zu dem Stammbaum der bergischen Landesherren im Ahnensaal des Schlosses Burg. Im Auftrag des Kunstvereins für Rheinland und Westfalen ausgeführt nach Entwurf, Zeichnungen und unter Leitung von Adolf Schill, Professor an der Kgl. Kunstakademie zu Düsseldorf, 1906–1908.
  30. ↑ Stock signature of the Düsseldorf Art Academy for Johannes Osten: BR 0004 No. 1562 is Johannes Osten, also Johann or N.N. Osten from Cologne. listed in sheets 31V, 70V, 72V, 191V and 233V, in Adolf Schill's class for ornamentation and decoration from 1888 to 1893
  31. ↑ Stock signature of the Düsseldorf Art Academy for Alfred Sohn: BR 0004 No. 1562, sheets: 70V, 114V, 152V and 191V, from 1889 to 1892, class for ornamentation and decoration, teacher Adolf Schill
  32. ↑ Bettina Baumgärtel, Sabine Schroyen, Lydia Immerheiser, Sabine Teichgröb: Verzeichnis der ausländischen Künstler und Künstlerinnen. Nationalität, Aufenthalt und Studium in Düsseldorf. In Sabine Baumgärtel (ed.): Die Düsseldorfer Malerschule und ihre internationale Ausstrahlung 1819–1918. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-702-9, vol. 1, pp. 425–443

Further reading

  • Schill, Adolf. In Friedrich von Boetticher: Malerwerke des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte. Vol. 2, Dresden 1898, p. 557.
  • Schill, Adolf. In Hans Vollmer (ed.): Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Created by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. Vol. 30: Scheffel–Siemerding. E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1936, p. 67.
  • Lore Schill: Adolf Schill. Erinnerungen an meinen Vater. In Jahrbuch der Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Rheinischen Geschichtsvereine, vol. 3. Verlag August Bagel, Düsseldorf 1937.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adolf Schill.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.