Theodor Hildebrandt (2 July 1804, Stettin29 September 1874, Düsseldorf) was a German artist of the Düsseldorf school of painting who specialized in literary and historical subjects. He was also a noted entomologist.

Biography

He was a disciple of the painter Schadow, and, on Schadow's appointment to the presidency of a new academy in the Rhenish provinces in 1828, followed that master to Düsseldorf. Hildebrandt began by painting pictures illustrative of Goethe and Shakespeare; but in this form he followed the traditions of the stage rather than the laws of nature. He produced rapidly "Faust and Mephistopheles" (1824), "Faust and Margaret" (1825), and "Lear and Cordelia" (1828). He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.

He visited the Netherlands with Schadow in 1829, and wandered alone in 1830 to Italy; but travel did not alter his style, though it led him to cultivate alternately eclecticism and realism.

Comparatively late in life Hildebrandt tried his powers as an historical painter in pictures representing Wolsey and Henry VIII, but he lapsed again into the romantic in "Othello and Desdemona." After 1847 Hildebrandt gave himself up to portrait-painting, and in that branch succeeded in obtaining a large practice. He died at Düsseldorf in 1874.

Selected paintings

<gallery mode="packed" heights="220">

File:1829 Hildebrandt Raeuber anagoria.JPG|The Robber (1829)

File:Theodor Hildebrandt Krieger u Kind.jpg|The Captain and<br> His Infant Son (1832)

Theodor Hildebrandt - The Murder of the Sons of Edward IV - Google Art Project.jpg|The Murder of the Children of King Edward (1835)

File:Reutern Evgraf Romanovich.png|Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern (1838)

</gallery>

References

  • koleopterologie.de In German