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Augusta Stylianou Gallery 
Paintings
Arthur Heinrich Wilhelm Fitger (4 October 1840 – 28 June 1909) was a German painter, art critic, playwright and poet. Arthur Fitger was the son of the postmaster and Delmenhorst innkeeper Peter Diedrich Fitger (born 29 February 1804, died 14 November 1865) und his wife Clara Maria Caroline née Plate widowed Dorny (born 29 May 1815, died 18 November 1891). His younger brother Emil Fitger (born 15 December 1848 in Delmenhorst, died 9 April 1917 in Bremen) was editor in chief of the Weser-Zeitung in Bremen for many years. Arthur Fitger attended the Volks- und Rektorschule in Delmenhorst and then the gymnasium in Oldenburg, where he lived at the home of Baurat Otto Lasius (1797–1888). In 1858, Fitger went to the Akademie zu München, where he studied, particularly under Moritz von Schwind (1804–1875). He went to Antwerp in 1861 and then to Paris. From 1863 to 1865, he stayed in Rome, supported by a scholarship from the Großherzog von Oldenburg. Then he spent the following years alternately in Vienna und Berlin before moving to Bremen in 1869. In Bremen, Fitger decorated the Rembertikirche with two pictures, the lost son and the merciful Samariter, the Exchange with maritime allegories, the Haus Seefahrt and the Reichspostgebäude. Influenced by the war in 1870, he produced the portable artwork, Barbarossa's Awakening, which spread his reputation further. In 1875, he was given the task of decorating the Ratskeller with murals. From 1883 to 1884 he painted large murals in the Kunsthalle Hamburg. Originally painting in the style of Peter von Cornelius (1783–1867) and Bonaventura Genelli (1798–1868), he later used colour in a more modern manner, similar to Hans Makart (1840–1884). Fitger was also well known for his writing. His plays, Adalbert von Bremen (Oldenburg 1873; 2nd edition with the sequel Hie Reich! Hie Rom!, 1875), Die Hexe (Oldenburg 1878, 4th edition 1885), Von Gottes Gnaden (2nd edition, Oldenburg 1884) have often been performed. He also wrote Albrecht Dürer, Johann Kepler and Michelangelo and the epic poem Roland und die Rose (1871) for the Bremer Künstlerverein. Fitger's most important written works are the poetry collections Fahrendes Volk (2nd edition, Oldenburg 1883) und Winternächte (Oldenburg 1880). Art critic Fitger was regarded as an important person in art in Bremen around 1900. His art criticisms, published in the press, had a lasting influence on hanseatic taste in art. He was chairman of the Kunstverein, and kept a conservative outlook on art. He strongly criticised artists who followed fashions that were modern at that time, including the Künstlerkolonie Worpswede and the contemporary French painters. The most striking example of his criticism was a comment on an attempt by Marie Bock and Paula Becker to exhibit in the Kunsthalle Bremen at the end of 1899. It appeared in the Weser-Zeitung, which was edited by his brother, Emil, at the time: “ Für die Arbeiten der beiden genannten Damen reicht der Wörterschatz einer reinlichen Sprache nicht aus, und bei einer unreinlichen wollen wir keine Anleihe machen. ” which means: “ To describe the work of the two ladies, the vocabulary of a clean language does not suffice, and we do not wish to borrow from an unclean one. ” However, his criticism was unable to prevent a breakthrough of the Künstlerkolonie Worpswede. Further reading * Ulrich Thieme/Felix Becker (Begr.): Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künste von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Band 12, Leipzig 1916, page 58 * Hans Friedl u.a. (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte des Landes Oldenburg. Oldenburg 1992, pages 194–196 * Georg von Lindern: Arthur Fitger Maler und Dichter 1840 -1909 Heimatverein Delmenhorst 1962 * Gerhard Wietek: 200 Jahre Malerei im Oldenburger Land ISBN 3-9801191-0-6 * Lilienthaler Kunststiftung: ...und sie malten doch! ISBN 978-3-00-021669-5 Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/ ", Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ==--==--==
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