Christian Wilberg facts for kids

Christian Wilberg (born November 20, 1839, died June 3, 1882) was a talented German painter. He was known for his amazing paintings of buildings and landscapes, especially those from Italy and ancient times.

Early Life and Art Training

Christian Wilberg was born in a town called Havelberg in Germany. He started his career as a house painter. But he wanted to learn more about art, so he moved to Berlin in 1861. There, he studied painting with Eduard Pape. After a year and a half, Pape suggested he learn from Paul Gropius. Wilberg became very good at understanding perspective (how things look far away or close up) and architecture (the design of buildings).

Later, in 1870, he finished his training with Oswald Achenbach in Düsseldorf. After that, Wilberg traveled around northern Germany. He also spent two years in the beautiful city of Venice, Italy.

Travels and Famous Buildings

Even after returning to Berlin, Wilberg loved to visit Italy. Italian architecture was his favorite subject to paint. Some of his most important paintings show famous Italian buildings. These include St Mark's Basilica in Venice and the Cappella Palatina in Palermo.

Big Projects and Recognition

In 1880, Wilberg painted a huge picture, called a panorama, of the Gulf of Naples for an exhibition in Berlin. This painting helped him become well-known among art experts.

The year before, he went on a trip to Pergamon with the director of the Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities. Pergamon was an ancient Greek city. There, Wilberg drew many sketches of the Acropolis, which is a high part of a city where important buildings stood. He later used these sketches for his paintings. He learned a lot about ancient Roman buildings. He even created pictures that showed how these old buildings might have looked when they were new. One of these pictures was displayed in a famous cafe in Berlin.

Later Life and Legacy

Wilberg's last big project was another large panorama. It showed the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome. He created this for a health exhibition in Berlin in 1882. Sadly, this amazing artwork was destroyed when the exhibition hall caught fire. Wilberg was only able to save a few of his other paintings and drawings.

After the fire, Wilberg traveled to France with a friend. He planned to paint in a town called Sedan. But on his way, he became ill while visiting Paris. He passed away there shortly after.

In October and November of 1882, a special exhibition of Wilberg's work was held in Berlin. It showed more than 677 of his paintings and drawings. Some of these works, like "Villa Mondagrone" and several watercolor and pencil sketches, were given to the National Gallery. In 1883, another one of his paintings, "Memento Mori," which showed the Sabini Mountains in Italy, was given to the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Dresden.

Images for kids

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  Pencil drawing: Excavations at the Byzantine Wall