FRIEDRICH WILHELM

See also:

• FRIEDRICH WILHELM SCHIRMER (1802—1866)
• SCHIRMER, JOHANN WILHELM (1807-1865)

SCHIRMER (1802—1866)  , German landscape artist, was born in Berlin . As a youth he painted flowers in the royal porcelain factory; afterwards he became a pupil of F . W . Schadow in the Berlin Academy, but his art owed most to Italy . He went to Italy in 1827; his sojourn extended over three years; he became a disciple of his country-man Joseph Koch, who built historic landscape on the Poussins, and is said to have caught inspiration from Turner . In 1831 Schirmer established himself in Berlin in a studio with scholars from 1839 to 1865 he was professor of landscape in the academy . Schirmer's place in the history of art is distinctive: his sketches in Italy were more than transcripts of the spots; he studied nature with the purpose of composing historic and poetic landscapes . On the completion of the Berlin Museum of Antiquities came his opportunity: upon the walls he painted classic sites and temples, and elucidated the collections by the landscape scenery with which they were historically associated . His supreme aim was to make his art the poetic interpretation of nature and he deemed techniquesecondary to conception . His pictures appeal to the mind by the ideas they embody, by beauty of form, harmony of line, significance of light and colour . In this constructional landscape German critics discover " motive," " inner meaning," " the subjective," " the ideal." And Schirmer thus formed a school .