Karl Rettich


Karl Lorenz Rettich was a German landscape artist and draftsman.

Life

Rettich was born in Rosenhagen near Dassow in Mecklenburg. His father was owner of the manor in this small village near the Bay of Lübeck. The area on the Baltic Sea influenced him at an early age and recover in his later works. Rettich went to high school in Lübeck, then in 1859 to study law in Munich on his fathers request. But he came over to landscape painting and became a pupil of Adolf Heinrich Lier. In 1862 he went to the Düsseldorf school of painting where he was until 1867 a student with Albert Flamm and Theodor Hagen. After living in Dresden 1867-70, he went 1871 to Weimar. There he was at the Grand Ducal Saxon School of Arts for further studies of landscape painting as a student with Arnold Böcklin, Franz von Lenbach and also Theodor Hagen. He undertook study trips to Norway, Sweden, as well as Italy. After a few years in Munich he moved to Lübeck and from there in April 1897 he went to Graal-Müritz on the Baltic Sea near Rostock. There he bought a house and spent from now the summer in the small community and the winters in his parents home in Lübeck. With the sale of postcards showing typical landscape motives, he could earn his living. And with the income he also had to build a pavilion in 1898, for the exposition of his paintings. In 1904 he died - suffering from cancer - from the effects of surgery.
Rettich was a member of the German Art Cooperative. He received awards for his works in London, Melbourne and Munich. Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin appointed him for professor. His older brother was , a lord of the manor and member of the German Parliament.

Exhibitions and Works (selection)

Karl Lorenz Rettich was regularly represented with his works at the well known exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin, the "Great Art Exhibition Berlin" and in the Munich Glass Palace.

Royal Academy of Arts Berlin