Paul Weber (artist)

For other people with the same name, see Paul Weber.

Paul Weber
Paul Weber portrait
Born(1823-01-19)19 January 1823
Darmstadt
Died12 October 1916(1916-10-12) (aged 93)
Munich
NationalityGerman

Gottlieb Daniel Paul Weber (19 January 1823 – 12 October 1916) was a German artist. Weber is known for his ethereal and timeless landscape paintings of early northeast America.[1] He emigrated to the U.S. in 1848 and though he returned to Germany around 1860 his influence on American landscape painting was still felt for years.[1]

Early life

Weber was born in Darmstadt, Germany the son of the composer Johann Daniel Weber (1784–1848). He studied art at the Städelschen Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt before, two years later, moving to Munich to study at the Academy in Munich which became his home base except when he lived in America.[1] Trained at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Weber specialized in Alpine landscape painting.[1]

Career

In 1848, soon after the collapse of the German Republic, at the age of 25, he moved to the United States, settling in Philadelphia, where he was a frequent exhibitor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1849 onward. He also exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Boston Athaeneum.[2]

Already an accomplished landscape painter by the time he was thirty years old, Weber refashioned himself as a teacher. Among his students in the class of landscape painting were William Trost Richards, William Stanley Haseltine, Edward Moran, and Harriet Cany Peale.[1]

In 1860 he returned to Germany settling back in Munich where he would spend the rest of his life. Weber kept on painting American landscape scenes for European audiences relying on memory and artistic reconstruction.[1] Even after his return, Weber still showed his paintings in America including at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.

Personal life

In 1850 his son Carl Weber was born in Philadelphia, who followed in his father's footsteps to become an artist and went on to paint landscapes like his father.[2] Paul had a nephew named Carl Philipp Weber who also became a painter.

Selection of works

Pastoral Landscape in Summer, 1857

Awards

  • 1858: Silver medal at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
  • 1865: Golden medal at the exhibition at the London Crystal Palace

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1901: VIII. International art exhibition in the glass palace, Munich
  • 1902 Great Berlin Art Exhibition
  • 1912: Munich annual exhibition in the glass palace
  • 1917: Paul Weber Memorial at the Heinemann Gallery, Munich
  • 1918: Paul Weber Darmstädter Kunstverein

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Busciglio-Ritter, Thomas (Spring 2021). ""The Most Perfect Manner": Paul Weber and the Transnationalism of US Landscapes". Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art. 7 (1).
  2. ^ Naeve, Milo M. (1999). 150 Years of Philadelphia Painters and Paintings Selections from the Sewell C. Biggs Museum of American Art. Philadelphia, PA: Library Company. p. 44. ISBN 9781893287013.
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