Friedrich August Kessler
Friedrich August Kessler was a German landscape painter of the Düsseldorf school of painting.
Life
Kessler received his first painting lessons from his father, Christian Friedrich Kessler. 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, 1842Motif from the Bergisches Land, 1846Hunter and Dog with Slain Deer in a Forest Clearing, 1848Red Deer in the Forest, 1852Angler at the Waterfall, 1853Externsteine, 1855Seascape, 1858Mill on a Stream, 1860Grafenberger Forest near Düsseldorf, 1861Return from the Hay Harvest, 1869Rest at the Mountain Lake, 1874Beach at Blankenberghe, 1882Forest Clearing with Deer, 1885Seascape, 1886Autumn Morning in the Beech Forest, 1891- ''Watermill''