Overview
A great-grandson of the famous German playwright and philosopher Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Julius Hübnerwas born in Oels, Silesia (now Poland). At age 16 he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Art in Berlin, where the Nazarene painter Wilhelm Schadow taught. Hübner’s first painting to garner serious attention was his 1825 rendering of Ruth & Boaz. In 1826, he followed Schadow to Düsseldorf upon Schadow’s appointment as director of the Düsseldorf Academy. After three years of study in Shadow’s studio, he traveled to Rome with his wife Pauline Charlotte Bendemann where they lived until 1831. Two years in Berlin followed by six years in Düsseldorf brought them finally to reside in Dresden in 1839. In 1841 he became a professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. It was here the artist met the composers Clara & Robert Schumann, eventually becoming the godfather and guardian of their son. Here he also sketched Felix Mendelssohn on his deathbed (1847) and painted a portrait of Emperor Friedrick III of Germany.
His painting The Golden Age received a gold medal at exhibition in Brussels in 1851. Sadly, this work was lost in 1945 at the Berlin Zoo. In 1871, Hübner was elevated to the position of Director for the Gallery of Paintings. This same year he also published an anthology of his poetry accompanied by his illustrations titled Light-Dark: From the Poetic Diary of a Painter. A painter, a professor, and a poet, Julius Hübner died in Loschwitz, Germany at age 76.