The New International Encyclopædia/Förster, Ernst

FÖRSTER, Ernst (1800-85). A German art critic and painter, brother of Friedrich Christoph, the historian and poet. He was born near Camburg, Saxe-Meiningen, April 8, 1800, and at first applied himself to the study of theology and philosophy, but soon devoting himself to art, entered the studio of Peter Cornelius at Munich. He was employed in painting the frescoes in the Aula at Bonn, and those of the Glyptothek and the arcades at Munich; but his reputation rests chiefly on his discovery of several ancient pictures, and on his works on the history of art. His greatest discovery was the frescoes of Avanzo, which date as far back as 1376, in the Chapel of San Giorgio at Padua. Among his paintings are “Hellas Liberated,” and portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Altenburg and children. Among his frescoes are scenes from Goethe's poems, and scenes from Wieland's Musarion and Die Grazien, Royal Palace, Munich. Among his works are excellent guide-books to Munich, Italy, and Germany; Die Wandgemälde der Sanct Georgenkapelle zu Padua (1859); Vorschule der Kunstgeschichte (1862); Denkmale deutscher Baukunst, Bildnerei und Malerei (1853-69); Geschichte der deutschen Kunst (1851-60); Geschichte der italienischen Kunst (1869-78); Peter von Cornelius (1874). Most of these works were illustrated by woodcuts after his own designs. He wrote a life of Jean Paul Richter, who was his father-in-law, and edited several of his works. He died at Munich, April 29, 1885.