KAULBACH, Wilhelm von, German painter : b. Arolsen, 15 Oct. 1895; d. Munich, 7 April 1874. He learned the rudiments of his art from his father who was a goldsmith and engraver on copper. He was a good draf ti man when he went to Dusseldorf in 1821 and entered the Art Academy where his chief teacher was Cornelius, already acknowledged as the head of the Diisseldorf school of his toric painting. When Cornelius in 1825 re moved to Munich, at the invitation of King Ludwig of Bavaria, he followed him and soon became his disciple in the art of ceiling decora tion, examples of which are 'Apollo and the Muses> in the great hall of the Odeon, and the allegorical figures of the 'Four Chief Rivers of Bavaria> and of 'Bavaria' in the portico of the royal palace. His pure and classic power of design is well exhibited in the 16 wall paint ings, illustrating the story of 'Cupid and Psyche,' in the palace of Duke Maximilian at Munich. He was at this time attracted to the study of Hogarth's works, the fruit of which appeared in his illustration of books, including the works of Shakespeare, Goethe and Schiller, and the Reineke Fuchs. He painted many
great incidents in the history of Germany, In cluding 12 scenes from Klopstock's 'Hermann's Fight> and the 'Death of Hermann,> wall paintings in the queen's palace at kingsbau. But his most ambitious and comprehensive works are those in which he endeavored to rep resent the progress of the human race by a series of typical historic tableaux. These com prise the 'Tower of 'Age of 'Destruction of Jerusalem); 'Battle of the Huns and Romans' ; 'The 'The Reformation> (1847-63). The range of his in tellectual ideas, his wonderful power of gen eralization, his mastery of every style of paint ing from caricature to the sublimity of the Italian cinquecentists, as represented by Michel angelo, have no parallel among modern paint ers. His coloring may be a little cold, some times a little crude, but his sense of form, his loftiness of conception and his genius for har monious composition have won for him the first place among German artists of the transi tion period between the idealism of Cornelius and the realism of the modern historic school.