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Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch's name will probably be inseparably linked for all time with his first and at the same time best-known picture story "Max und Moritz - Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen". Other stories include "Hans Huckebein, the Raven" and "Pious Helen". Absurdly enough, Busch was a serious and taciturn man who produced such illustrations, which today are considered the forerunners of comics, merely to earn money. The series of pictures, of which he published countless, were mostly executed as wood engravings, which gave them their contoured peculiarity.
His real ambition was painting. Here, however, Busch failed because of his own overly high standards and destroyed much of his work when the sheer volume took up too much space. The choice of his backgrounds was not very careful, and the quality of the colors also left much to be desired. Too early and improper stacking of works that had not dried through often resulted in the loss of the same. Mostly the formats were very small, as if he had not wanted to waste the colors on large expensive canvases. Often they are darkened today and in the effect different than intended by the painter at the time. All the more expressive are the surviving paintings, which certainly testify to a virtuoso skill and one wishes that more of them had been preserved. The works before us cannot deny the strong influence of 16th and 17th century Dutch painting on Wilhelm Busch's work. This is due to his art studies in Antwerp, which made him become enthusiastic about the artists Rubens, Frans Hals, David Teniers and Adriaen Brouwer - role models that clearly manifested themselves in the "Self-Portrait in Dutch Costume". At the same time, however, these great names made him aware of the qualities he still lacked as a painter, and caused him to abandon his studies in despair. Even a subsequent study of art in Munich brought him no real satisfaction, not to mention economic independence, so that he briefly considered emigrating to Brazil to devote himself to beekeeping.
In Frankfurt am Main, the patron Johanna Keßler took care of him for some time, and contributed to his most productive and lucrative period. His further path was marked by alcohol and nicotine addiction, which even made him conspicuous in the Munich public. Efforts as a composer failed, as did attempts to be taken seriously as an erotic poet. The manuscript of "Max und Moritz" found a publisher only after several odysseys, who bought it from Busch for a fixed sum, so that Busch was no longer involved in later editions. Although he would have had the opportunity to do so, he only publicly exhibited a single painting towards the end of his life.
Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch's name will probably be inseparably linked for all time with his first and at the same time best-known picture story "Max und Moritz - Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen". Other stories include "Hans Huckebein, the Raven" and "Pious Helen". Absurdly enough, Busch was a serious and taciturn man who produced such illustrations, which today are considered the forerunners of comics, merely to earn money. The series of pictures, of which he published countless, were mostly executed as wood engravings, which gave them their contoured peculiarity.
His real ambition was painting. Here, however, Busch failed because of his own overly high standards and destroyed much of his work when the sheer volume took up too much space. The choice of his backgrounds was not very careful, and the quality of the colors also left much to be desired. Too early and improper stacking of works that had not dried through often resulted in the loss of the same. Mostly the formats were very small, as if he had not wanted to waste the colors on large expensive canvases. Often they are darkened today and in the effect different than intended by the painter at the time. All the more expressive are the surviving paintings, which certainly testify to a virtuoso skill and one wishes that more of them had been preserved. The works before us cannot deny the strong influence of 16th and 17th century Dutch painting on Wilhelm Busch's work. This is due to his art studies in Antwerp, which made him become enthusiastic about the artists Rubens, Frans Hals, David Teniers and Adriaen Brouwer - role models that clearly manifested themselves in the "Self-Portrait in Dutch Costume". At the same time, however, these great names made him aware of the qualities he still lacked as a painter, and caused him to abandon his studies in despair. Even a subsequent study of art in Munich brought him no real satisfaction, not to mention economic independence, so that he briefly considered emigrating to Brazil to devote himself to beekeeping.
In Frankfurt am Main, the patron Johanna Keßler took care of him for some time, and contributed to his most productive and lucrative period. His further path was marked by alcohol and nicotine addiction, which even made him conspicuous in the Munich public. Efforts as a composer failed, as did attempts to be taken seriously as an erotic poet. The manuscript of "Max und Moritz" found a publisher only after several odysseys, who bought it from Busch for a fixed sum, so that Busch was no longer involved in later editions. Although he would have had the opportunity to do so, he only publicly exhibited a single painting towards the end of his life.