Anton Burger und Hugo Kauffmann
From Kronberg to lake Chiemsee I Von Kronberg an den Chiemsee
To mark the 200th birthday of Anton Burger and the 180th birthday of Hugo Kauffmann this year, the Kronberg Artists’ Colony Museum, in cooperation with the Markt Prien Art Collection, is staging a joint exhibition dedicated to works from the rural life of Anton Burger (1824-1905) and his pupil Hugo Kauffmann (1844-1915).
The starting point of the exhibition formed by about 25 Kauffmann paintings from the original Abé Collection in Prien, with a similar number of works by Anton Burger from the Kronberg Artists’ Colony Foundation. Loans from private and public collections, such as the Neue Pinakothek in Munich and the Städel Museum Frankfurt, round off the selection.
The title of the exhibition refers to Hugo Kauffmann’s career journey from Kronberg to Chiemsee. After initially being taught by his father, Hermann Kauffmann, Hugo Kauffmann – like Anton Burger – began his studies at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt under the genre and landscape painter Jakob Becker (1810-1872).
After starting out in Frankfurt, Kauffmann attended the studio of the much older Burger in Kronberg from 1863 to 1871. Kauffmann then moved on to Munich before settling in Prien am Chiemsee in 1872, where he became the founder of an offshoot colony from the artists’ colony on Fraueninsel in Chiemsee, which had been established in 1828.
A little later, with Anton Burger’s arrival there and his decision to settle in 1858, an important artists’ colony also developed in Kronberg, a small town on the outskirts of Frankfurt.
The juxtaposition of the two artists in the exhibition offers interesting comparisons and striking similarities, but also charming differences in their artistic approach. What both artists have in common is their enthusiasm for hunting, rural life and the Dutch masters of the 17th century. In Burger’s work, these influences were reflected in his depictions of dimly lit farmhouse parlours and lively inns with their striking protagonists, which were very popular with the citizens of Frankfurt. Hugo Kauffmann, on the other hand, also enjoyed great success during his lifetime with his depictions of Bavarian rural life. While Anton Burger’s detailed hunting and genre scenes reflect the artist’s energetic personality, Kauffmann celebrated everyday life in Bavaria in humorous, predominantly small-format portraits of stage coach drivers, farm girls and innkeepers fond of their drink.
