Carl Ludwig Brandt

Carl Ludwig Brandt
The Berry Pickers by Carl Ludwig Brandt

Carl Ludwig Brandt (22 September 1831 Holstein, Germany - 1905) was a German-born artist who worked mostly in the United States.

Biography

Brandt was born near Hamburg, in Holstein, Germany. His father and grandfather were physicians in Hamburg. His father taught him drawing at the age of seven, and he subsequently studied in the principal galleries of Europe. He served in the First War of Schleswig (1848–1850), between Germany and Denmark.

He came to the United States in 1852. He painted several portraits previous to 1864, and in that year built his studio in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, but lived in Europe from 1865 until 1869. He was chosen a national academician in 1872, and in 1883 was elected first director of the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, Savannah, Georgia, where he resided in winter. At Telfair he offered art instruction and oversaw art acquisitions, including plaster casts, thus transforming a family mansion into a cultural institution.

Brandt died at Savannah in 1905.

Works

Among his works are:

• “A Dish of Alpine Strawberries”
• “The Fortune-Teller” (1869)
• “Return from the Alps” (1874)
• “Monte Rosa at Sunrise”
• “Bay of Naples during Eruption of Vesuvius in 1867”
• “Etna from Taurinino, Sicily”
• “Resignation”
• “The Golden Treasures of Mexico”

After his return from Europe, he did numerous portraits, including likenesses of John Jacob Astor the elder, Mr. and Mrs. William B. Astor, Dr. John W. Draper, George S. Appleton, Gen. Henry R. Jackson, and a full-length figure of his wife.

The last was shown at the academy exhibition of 1882 and the international exposition at Munich in 1883. Friedrich Pecht, in his “Modern Art at the International Exhibition,” says of it: “The most skillful of all these ladies' portraits is the one in full figure by Carl L. Brandt, in fact, a most charming picture, a masterpiece good enough for a Netcher.” Brandt did some work as a sculptor, and in 1886 had nearly completed a colossal bust of Alexander von Humboldt.

References

• Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Brandt, Carl Ludwig" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
• Biography at fada.com (Fine Art Dealers Association; visited 17 February 2011)