Johann Karl Bähr

Johann Karl Bähr (1801–69 ) was a German painter and writer.

Johann Karl Bähr
Self-portrait (1820)
Born	18 August 1801 Rīga, Russian empire (Now  Latvia)
Died	29 September 1869 (aged 68) Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony (Now  Germany)
Occupation	Painter, writer.

Life

Bähr was born in Riga on 18 August 1801.[1] He studied under Matthaei in Dresden[2] and completed his art education with a visit to Italy in 1827–29.[1] He married in Dresden, then spent some time back in Riga, before settling permanently in Dresden in 1832.[1] He was made a Professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in 1840.[2] Enthusiastic about poetry, he moved in the circle of Ludwig Tieck in Dresden, and was a close friend of Julius Mosen.[1]

Bähr was in demand as a portraitist, and also painted some historical works.[1] He wrote several books: Die Gräber der Liven (1850), a report on some archaeological excavations in Livonia which he undertook in 1846; Lectures on Dante's Divine Comedy (1853); Lectures on the Colour Theories of Newton and Goethe (1863) and The Dynamic Circle (1860–68), a scientific work which occupied him almost exclusively for the last ten years of his life.[1]

Bähr's large collection of Latvian medieval antiquities was purchased by the British Museum in 1852.[3]

He died at Dresden on 29 September 1869.[1]

Works

His paintings include:[2]

• Virgil and Dante.
• The Anabaptists in Münster (lithographed by Hanfstängl, and by Teichgräber).
• Iwan the Cruel, of Russia, warned of his death by a Finnish Magician (signed and dated 1850); in the Dresden Galiery.
• Christ and St. Thomas (at Kiev).
• Christ on the Cross (at Zschopau),
• Portrait of Julius Mosen (lithographed by Hanfstängl).

References

1. Clauß, Carl (1875). "Bähr, Johann Karl". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. p. 769.
2. Bryan,1886-9
3. British Museum Collection

Sources

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bryan, Michael (1886). "Baehr, Johann Karl". In Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.