Friedrich August Kessler (30 December 1826 – April 1906) was a German landscape painter of the Düsseldorf school of painting.
Life Kessler received his first painting lessons from his father, Christian Friedrich Kessler (1799–1854). In 1841, he enrolled at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. There, he studied under landscape painter Johann Wilhelm Schirmer from 1843 to 1854. Kessler was a founding member of the artists' association "Malkasten" in Düsseldorf, where he resided as a freelance painter after his studies. For a time, he lived with Eugen Bracht, Fritz Ebel, and Carl Friedrich Harveng. He undertook study trips to various coastal, low mountain range, and Alpine landscapes, including the Teutoburg Forest, Hesse, Bavaria, Tyrol, Northern Italy, Switzerland, Holland, and Belgium. In 1854, writer Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter classified him as a "historical-stylistic landscaper" following Nicolas Poussin's theory of modes. From 1860 to 1892, he regularly exhibited at the Berlin Academy Exhibitions and occasionally at the Munich Glass Palace exhibitions. His son Walter, also a painter, did not gain significant recognition in Germany.
Works (selection)
German Forest Landscape with Wild Stream, 1842 Motif from the Bergisches Land, 1846 Hunter and Dog with Slain Deer in a Forest Clearing, 1848 Red Deer in the Forest, 1852 Angler at the Waterfall, 1853 Externsteine, 1855 Seascape, 1858 Mill on a Stream, 1860 Grafenberger Forest near Düsseldorf, 1861 Return from the Hay Harvest, 1869 Rest at the Mountain Lake, 1874 Beach at Blankenberghe, 1882 Ships in a storm, 1885 Forest Clearing with Deer, 1885 Seascape, 1886 Autumn Morning in the Beech Forest, 1891 Watermill
Further reading Christmann, Berlin 1872. Müller, Hermann Alexander. "Keßler, August." In Biographisches Künstler-Lexikon. Leipzig: Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, 1882, p. 297. Boetticher, Friedrich von. Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts. Dresden: Fr. v. Boetticher's Verlag, 1895, vol. 1/2, pp. 674-675. Thieme, Ulrich and Felix Becker. Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, 1927, vol. 20, p. 210. Bénézit, Emmanuel. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays. Paris: Gmünd, 1976, vol. 6, p. 201. Busse, Joachim. Internationales Handbuch aller Maler und Bildhauer des 19. Jahrhunderts. Wiesbaden, 1977, p. 666.
External links
August Kessler, artist file at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) August Friedrich Kessler, auction results at artnet