Eduard Bendemann

* 03.12.1811 in Berlin; ✝ 27.12.1889 in Dusseldorf

Painter, Director of the Fine Arts Academy in Dusseldorf and Dresden

Biography

Eduard Bendemann studied from 1827 onwards at the Dusseldorf Academy under W. Schadow, whom he accompanied on journeys to Italy in 1829 and 1831. There he studied the old masters and soon achieved artistic maturity. After his return to Germany he proved himself a particularly accomplished painter of Old Testament scenes and achieved widespread recognition with his picture The Mourning of the Jews in Exile. In 1838 he was appointed Director of the Fine Arts Academy in Dresden, and moved from there to the academy in his home town in 1859 – which he directed until his retirement on the grounds of ill health in 1863. The mural paintings which decorate the throne room and the dancehall in the Dresdner Schloss are regarded as his masterpiece. Bendemann also worked as an illustrator, providing, amongst others, the illustrations for an 1875 edition of Lessing’s Nathan der Weise. He received many distinctions for his work, e.g. the Pour le Mérite for art and science.

• Gefangene Juden in Babylon, also known as Die trauernden Juden im Exil (1832)
• Zwei Mädchen am Brunnen (1832)
• Jeremias auf den Trümmern Jerusalems (1835/36)
• Wegführung der Juden in die babylonische Gefangenschaft (1872)
• Nathan der Weise (1875)
• Heinrich I. schlägt die Ungarn (1878)

Literature

Secondary Literature

• Aschenborn, Wulf: Eduard Bendemann. 1811 – 1889; das Direktorat an der Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie 1859-1867. Cologne, 1998.
• Krey, Guido: Gefühl und Geschichte. Eduard Bendemann (1811-1889). Eine Studie zur Historienmalerei der Düsseldorfer Malerschule. Weimar, 2003.
• Scholl, Christian/Sors, Anne-Katrin (eds.): Vor den Gemälden: Eduard Bendemann zeichnet. Bestandskatalog der Zeichnungen und Skizzenbücher eines Hauptvertreters der Düsseldorfer Malerschule in der Göttinger Universitätskunstsammlung. Göttingen, 2012.

Album pages with this person

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