Copenhagen, Denmark
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
Brühlsche Terrasse 1, 01067 Dresden, Germany
Academy of Fine Arts Dresden.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
Brühlsche Terrasse 1, 01067 Dresden, Germany
Academy of Fine Arts Dresden.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3772820042/?tag=2022091-20
1810
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Runge was born in Wolgast, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, on July 23, 1777. He was the ninth of eleven children in a family of shipbuilders. His father, Daniel Nicolas Runge, was the shipping company owner and merchant. Runge's mother was Magdalena Dorothea Runge.
As a child, Philipp Runge had a lot of problems with his health and frequently missed school classes. At an early age he learned the art of scissor-cut silhouettes from his mother, which was practiced by him his entire life. In 1795 he began a commercial apprenticeship at his older brother Daniel's firm in Hamburg. In 1799 his brother supported Philipp Runge financially, so that he began his studies of painting under the guidance of Jens Juel at the Copenhagen Academy.
In 1801 Runge moved to Dresden in order to continue his studies at the Academy of Art, graduating from it in 1803. There he got acquainted with Caspar David Friedrich, Ludwig Tieck, and also Pauline Bassenge. During this period he also began a comprehensive study of the writings created by the 17th-century mystic Jakob Boehme.
Runge moved from Dresden to Hamburg in 1803. During this period, he created several important drawings and portraits. By that time he had also become connected with many Romantic writers, artists and musicians, including writers Friedrich Schlegel, Ludwig Tieck, and artists Anton Graff and Caspar David Friedrich.
Due to war dangers (Napoleonic siege of Hamburg) Runge and his wife relocated in 1805 to his parental home in Wolgast where they stayed until 1807. In 1805 Runge's contact with Goethe on the subject of his artistic work and colour became much more intensive and he started to develop his colour theory. The success of his etched drawings enabled him to contribute to projects like the "Zeitung für Einsiedler", published by Bretano and Arnim. In 1807 Philipp Runge returned to Hamburg. There he and his brother Daniel set up a new company in which he remained active until his death. The same year he developed the concept of the colour sphere.
In 1808 Philipp Runge intensified his work on colour, conducting disk colour mixture experiments. He also published written versions of two fairy tales, The fisherman and his wife and The almond tree. In the year 1809, Runge finished his work on the manuscript of The Colour sphere (Die Farben-Kugel), which was published in 1810. In addition to a description of the colour sphere, it comprised an illustrated essay on rules of colour harmony and one more on colour in nature written by Henrik Steffens. The same year, ill with tuberculosis, Philipp Runge produced his self-portrait as well as portraits of his family and brother Daniel.
The Great Morning
Die Hülsenbeckschen Kinder
Portrait of Otto Sigismund
Self-portrait
Lily of Light and Morning Star
Pauline Runge with her two-year-old-son
Wir drei
Portrait of Wilhelmina Sophia Helwig
The Lesson of the Nightingale
The Artist's Parents
Peter Walks on Water
Drawing Hands
Self-portrait in a Blue Shirt
The Artists Children, Maria Dorothea and Otto Sigismund Runge
Amaryllis Formosissima
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Die Heiligen Drei Könige
Bildnis Friedrich Perthes
Recumbent Male Nude in a Landscape
Mythological Scene with a Centaur and Dionysos
Mythological Scene with Hermes, Leda and Dionysos surrounded by Putti
The Serenade
Phillip Runge was a devout Christian. Runge's faith was reflected in his artistic works as he tried to express notions of the harmony of the universe through symbolism of colour, form, and numbers. For instance, he considered blue, yellow, and red to be symbolic of the Christian trinity and equated blue with God and the night, red with morning, evening, and Jesus, and yellow with the Holy Spirit.
On April 3, 1804, Philipp Runge got married to Pauline Bassenge. Runge's son Sigismund was born the same month. In 1807 their daughter Maria Dorothea was born in the Hanseatic city. In 1809 Runge's son Gustav Ludwig Bernhard was born. Philipp Runge died one day before his wife gave birth to another son, named after his father, Philipp Otto Runge.
