Overbeck

In offering to the public the first complete biography yet attempted of the painter Overbeck, I wish to give a few words in explanation. The task has been far from easy: the materials, though the reverse of scanty, are scattered: reminiscences of the artist and criticisms on his works lie as fragments dispersed over the current literature of Germany. My endeavour has been to fill in vacuities, to thread together a consistent and connected narrative, and thus, so far as I have been able, to present a true and lucid history.

My duty has been all the more anxious from the unusual complexity of the pictorial products falling under review. The scenes are laid amid the battle of the schools: the periods bring into prominence conflicts between classic, romantic, and naturalistic styles. The art of Overbeck was rooted in the olden times, yet in some degree it became quickened by contact with present life, and took also a personal aspect from the painter's inner self. The great pictures and the numberless drawings thus evolved over a space of more than half a century, and here described from my own knowledge, raise interesting and intricate questions on which the world remains divided. My care has been to give a just estimate of these exceptional art manifestations.

Also enter into the art, through the life, conflicts of religious creeds, strifes between Protestantism and Catholicism, between Platonism, Mysticism, and Rationalism. In dealing with such delicate and serious topics I have avoided all controversy, and have ventured only on the simplest and briefest exposition. My effort has been to state the case fairly all round, to maintain an even balance, and, above all, to place the reader, whatever may chance to be his creed or art school, in a position to form a true judgment.

Likewise fairly to appreciate the artist, it is needful rightly to comprehend the man. And here, again, perplexities arise from unwonted combinations. The character is one of the noblest and purest, and yet it is beset with peculiar infirmities. The portrait offered in these pages is, I trust, true and individual, toned down into unity, and yet not left cold or colourless. Such negation would, indeed, do injustice to my own feelings. For among the cherished recollections of past days are my visits to Overbeck's studio, stretching over a period of twenty years: I learned to revere the master and to love his works, and I trust no word in this little volume may lessen the respect due to an honoured name.

J. B. A.

KENSINGTON, May, 1882.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

LÜBECK--VIENNA.

Birth and Parentage--Early Days in Lübeck--The Artist's learned and religious Ancestry--His Father Doctor of Laws and Burgomaster--Chart of the Family--Creed for a Purist Painter--Young Overbeck leaves Lübeck for Vienna: his Studies in the Academy--Decadence of Art in the Austrian Capital--Rise of the German Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood--Conflict between the Old Party and the New--Overbeck and his Friends expelled from the Academy--He resolves to make Christian Art the Vocation of his Life--Leaves Vienna for Rome Page 1

CHAPTER II.

ROME--THE GERMAN BROTHERHOOD.

Overbeck and his brother Artists reach Rome--The German Colony settle in the Convent of Sant' Isidore--Inspiring surroundings of Art and Nature--Modes of Study and of Life--Overbeck "a Treasury of Art and Poetry, a saintly Man"--"The New-Old School," "the Nazarites," provoke opposition and ridicule--State of Art in Rome: Classic, Romantic, Christian--First Commission: early Drawings and Pictures--Exhibition in Palazzo Caffarelli--Overbeck and his Friends join the Roman Catholic Church--Reasons assigned--Literary circle: Niebuhr, Bunsen, and Friedrich Schlegel--Frescoes by Overbeck, Cornelius, Veit, and Schadow in the Casa Bartholdi and the Villa Massimo 19