Karl Wilhelm Gentz

Karl Wilhelm Gentz (1822-1890)

Karl Wilhelm Gentz (born December 9, 1822 in Neuruppin - August 23, 1890 in Berlin ) was a German painter .

Karl Wilhelm Gentz ​​was the second child of the merchant Johann Christian Gentz . Initially enrolled at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin, he decided to study painting at the age of twenty-one. He visited the renowned Atelier Kloeber and studied in 1845 for nine months at the Antwerp Academy of Art, where he went in 1846 via London in the art metropolis of Paris . There he entered the student studio Paul Delaroche , 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 picture The lost son in the desert , a life-size figure. In 1850 he then went through Marseille and Malta to Egypt and the Sinai . His return journey took him across Asia Minor, the Greek archipelago, Constantinople and Vienna .

In 1852 he lived temporarily in Berlin. There he painted his first pictures of oriental life: the slave market and the Egyptian school . Little contented Gentz ​​turned back to Paris and this time joined the studio of Thomas Couture . During this time he painted two religious pictures with life-size figures, Christ and Magdalene with Simon and Christ among the publicans . Later he did not record the biblical themes.

Back in Berlin since 1858, he created a long series of Oriental, mostly Egyptian, representations, which received undivided applause at the major exhibitions of the Berlin Academy of Arts due to their characteristic approach and brilliant coloring. The total oeuvre of the painter is very big. Soon the landscape will be, soon the figures will be predominant, in all but the character of land and people is sharp. The most important works are: Slave transport through the desert, Mekka caravan camp, Prayer of the Mekka caravan, Encounter of two caravans in the desert, Nillandschaft with flamingos (1870), Storyteller at Cairo, Dead party at Cairo, Village school in Upper Egypt, Snake Charmer (1872), The Entry of the Crown Prince of Prussia into Jerusalem, November 4, 1869 (1876, Berlin National Gallery).

In preparation for the latter picture, he traveled to Jerusalem in 1873 on behalf of the Prussian Crown Prince. The picture received the big gold medal at the Great Academic Exhibition in Berlin and the small silver medal in Munich.

Between 1874 and 1890 Gentz ​​was a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 1881 he was appointed professor by Emperor Wilhelm I. Gentz ​​was regarded as a first-rate colorist, who knew how to portray the effects of sunlight with great mastery. Through several trips to Egypt and Palestine, he was later able to expand his field of study.

Wilhelm Gentz ​​died in Berlin in 1890 at the age of 67 and was buried in the Old St. Matthew's Cemetery in Schöneberg . The tomb has not been preserved. 

His son Ismael also became a painter.