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Alfred Rethel

Born: Diepenbend, 15 May 1816
Died: Düsseldorf, 1 December 1859
Nationality: German
Studies: 

With Johann Baptiste Bastiné

With Heinrich Christoph Kolbe and Theodor Hildebrandt at Düsseldorf Academy (Staatliche Kunstakademie)

With Nazarene Philip Veit at Frankfurt Academy (Städelsche Kunstinstitut)

Career: 

1836 – moves to Frankfurt

1839 –first commission: paintings of Holy Roman Emperors for the Kaisersaal (Emperors’ Room) in the Old City Hall

1839-40 –commission from Frankfurter Kunstverein for Reconciliation between Otto the Great and his Brother Heinrich (1840, Historisches Museum, Frankfurt)

1840 – wins Rheinland-Westfalen Kunstverein (art association) competition for paintings depicting the life of Charlemagne for the Krönungssaal (crown room) in the Aachen city hall

1846 – appeals to Frederick William IV (King of Prussia) for approval of the Krönungssaal designs

1849 – publishes Another Dance of Death: From the Year 1848 (Auch ein Totentanz: Aus dem Jahre 1848)

Travels

Rome (1844-45; 1852-53)

Commissions from: 

Frederick William IV (King of Prussia)

Important Artworks: 

The Harkort Factory in Burg Wetter, 1834 (private collection)

Another Dance of Death, 1849