Pecht, Friedrich

He was born in the family of a lithographer and received his first lessons in painting and lithography from his father. At the age of 19 he entered the Munich Academy of Arts . In 1833 he became an assistant to Franz Hanfstaengl , with whom in 1835 he moved to Dresden . Since 1839, for two years he worked with Paul Delaroche in Paris , in 1839 he joined the Masonic Lodge in Leipzig . In 1841 he returned to Munich, becoming a freelance artist, and until 1844 he lived alternately in it and in Constance. From 1844 to 1847 he lived in Leipzig and Dresden, and then for almost two years in Frankfurt . In 1852 he married, had a daughter in marriage. In 1851-1852 and 1853-1854 he made long trips to Italy and both times spent a lot of time in Rome , studying ancient monuments. In 1854 he returned to Munich and remained there until the end of his life. Since 1854, in fact, no longer painted and collaborated in the publication of the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, including reporting for him on European art exhibitions. In 1874, his wife passed away. In 1885 he headed the authoritative and popular art history publication Die Kunst für Alle . In addition, until the end of his life he collaborated in a number of publications and wrote more than 1,500 articles on art.

In the last period of his life he became known as a painter of the so-called literary genre, that is, images of scenes from the works of famous German writers or from their life. Among his paintings, the most famous are: “Goethe reading an excerpt from his Faust in front of the ducal court in Karlsruhe” (was in the museum of this city), “Schiller’s reception in Mannheim after the presentation of his Robbers”, “Goethe's first appearance at the Weimar court”, “Henry VIII and Anna Boleyn at Cardinal Wolsay "and" The Capture of Venice in 1849. "

Equally fluent in brush and pencil, he produced more than half of the total number of drawings published in the Schiller Gallery (Leipzig, 1859), illustrated the Goethe Gallery (1863), the Lessing Gallery and, together with others, the Shakespeare Gallery ”, And also compiled a text accompanying these latest editions. Later he wrote in one of the halls of Munich Maximilianium twelve images of generals and government people and in collaboration with Fr. Schwerer is decorated with frescoes "The Soviet Hall" in Konstanz (episodes from the history of this city). At the end of the last two works, Pecht devoted himself exclusively to writing scientific papers. In his journal articles and in separately published essays, he appeared to be an educated art critic, however, according to the ESBE , "it is not always objective enough and impartial, too imbued with the German patriotic tendency"; the latter was especially evident during the Franco-Prussian war .

The main works of his authorship: “Südfrüchte, Skizzenbuch eines Malers” (Leipzig, 1854,), “Berichte über Kunst und Kunstindustrie auf Weltausstellungen von 1873 (Wien) und 1878 (Paris)”, “Deutsche Künstler des XIX Jrh77 18h Jrh77 —1884), “Geschichte der Münchener Kunst im XIX Jahrhunderts” (Munich, 1888) and “Aus meiner Zeit, Lebenserianerungen” (Munich, 1894). Wrote several articles for Allgemeinen Deutschen Biographie .

• Pecht, Friedrich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• NDB article (German)