Wilhelm Gentz

1822-1890 German

Wilhelm Gentz

Master of Orientalist light and color

Karl Wilhelm Gentz was a German painter. Karl Wilhelm Gentz ​​was the second child of the businessman Johann Christian Gentz. Initially enrolled at the Berlin Friedrich Wilhelms University, he decided to study painting when he was 21 years old. He attended the renowned Atelier Kloeber and in 1845 studied for nine months at the Antwerp Academy of Art, after which he went via London to the art metropolis Paris in 1846. There he entered Paul Delaroche's student studio, which was then under the direction of Charles Gleyre. In 1847 he traveled to Spain and Morocco. In February 1848 he returned to Paris, where he painted The Prodigal Son in the Desert, a life-size figure. In 1850 he then went to Egypt and Sinai via Marseille and Malta. His way back took him through Asia Minor, the Greek archipelago, Constantinople and Vienna. In 1852 he lived temporarily in Berlin. It was there that his first pictures of oriental life were created: the slave market and the Egyptian school. Not satisfied with this, Gentz ​​went back to Paris and this time joined Thomas Couture's atelier. During this time he painted two religious pictures with life-size figures, Christ and Magdalena with Simon and Christ among the tax collectors. Back in Berlin in 1858, he created a long series of oriental, mostly Egyptian depictions, which, thanks to their characteristic conception and brilliant coloring, met with unanimous approval at the major exhibitions of the Berlin Art Academy. The overall oeuvre of the painter is very large. Between 1874 and 1890 Gentz ​​was a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 1881 he was appointed professor by Kaiser Wilhelm I. Gentz ​​was regarded as a colorist of the first order, who knew how to depict the effects of sunlight with great mastery. He was later able to expand his field of study through several trips to Egypt and Palestine. Wilhelm Gentz ​​died in Berlin in 1890 at the age of 67 and was buried in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Schöneberg. His son Ishmael also became a painter.

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