Herman Friedrich Grimm
Kassel, 1828 - 1901, Berlin
Grimm's reputation is that of the arch-Romantic, Gründerzeit art historian. He viewed himself as the intellectual successor of Goethe. His approach to art history was through the "Great Masters," and arranging significance of art through a biographical account of art history. His tastes both typified and led German and continental bourgeois taste. Homer, Dante and Shakespeare were the great writers of their age; in art, only Raphael and Michelangelo could compare. The nineteenth century's adoration of Raphael is in large part Grimm's doing. Wölfflin wrote that Grimm showed indifference to all but the very great. This approach to art history is shared by other historians of his age, including Carl Justi, but was personally savaged in the lectures of Anton Springer. Grimm was one of the first to carefully study reception theory, though he is little acclaimed for it. In the 3rd edition of his life of Raphael (1896) he added a section on Rezeptionsgeschichte. Perhaps because formal analysis and the sanctity of viewing the original work of art mattered so little to him, he was among the first to use lantern slides (reproductive images) in his lectures. Grimm's writings were gradually supplanted by better scholarship in the twentieth century. His emotional approach to art-historical debate, as evidence in the Holbein Madonna incident, proved his allegiances were usually closer to nationalism than art history. In Germany, his concept of the [German] hero as a mover of history was embraced by the Nazis, who saw to it that new and repackaged versions of his writings, such as Vom geist der Deutschen, 1943, appeared up until the war's end.
Home Country: Germany
Sources: Schuchhardt, Wolfgang, ed. Vom Geist der Deutschen, Gedanken von Herman Grimm: ein Brevier. Berlin: F. A. Herbig, 1943; Dilly, Heinrich. Kunstgeschichte als Institution: Studien zur Geschichte einer Diziplin. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1979, p. 41 mentioned; Wölfflin, Heinrich. Heinrich Wölfflin, 1864-1945: Autobiographie, Tagebücher und Briefe. Joseph Ganter, ed. 2nd ed. Basel: Schwabe & Co., 1984, p. 492; Bazin, Germain. Histoire de l'histoire de l'art: de Vasari à nos jours. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986, pp. 158, 530-531; Kultermann, Udo. The History of Art History. New York: Abaris, 1993, pp. 126-27, 147; Metzler Kunsthistoriker Lexikon: zweihundert Porträts deutschsprachiger Autoren aus vier Jahrhunderten. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1999, pp. 130-133; Schlink, Wilhelm. "Herman Grimm (1828-1901): Epigone und Vorläufer." in Osinski, Jutta and Saure, Felix, eds. Aspekte der Romantik: zur Verleihung des „Brüder Grimm-Preises“ der
Philipps-Universität Marburg im Dezember 1999. Kassel: Brüder-Grimm-Gesellschaft, 2001 pp. 73-93.
Bibliography: Die Cartons von Peter von Cornelius in den Sälen der Königl. Akademie der Künste zu Berlin. Berlin: Hertz, 1859; Leben Michelangelo's. 2 vols. Hanover: Carl Rümpler, 1860-1863 [and Berlin: Gustav Schade], English, Life of Michael Angelo. Boston: Little, Brown, 1865; "Ist die moderne Kunstgeschichte eine auf solider Grundlage ruhende Wissenschaft?-- Gründe warum nicht.-- Notwendigkeit einer änderung." in, über Künstler und Kunstwerke 1 (1864): 4-8; Die Venus von Milo. Rafael und Michel Angelo: Zwei Essays von Herman Grimm. Boston: De Vries, Ibarra & Co., 1864, partially translated into English, The Venus de Milo. Boston: J. J. Hawes, 1868, collected and republished as, Zehn ausgewählte Essays zur Einführung in das Studium der Neuern Kunst. Berlin: Dümmler, 1871; Über Künstler und Kunstwerke. 2 vols. Berlin: F. Dümmler's Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1865-1867; Albrecht Dürer. Berlin: C. G. Lüderitz, 1866; [Meyer Madonna opinion] "Die Holbein'sche Madonna." Preussische Jahrbücher 28 (1871): 418-31; Das Leben Raphaels von Urbino: italienischer Text von Vasari übersetzt und Commentar. Berlin: F. Dümmler, 1872, [first complete edition, 2nd, 1886, 3rd ed., 1896 contains the chapter on Rezeptionsgeschichte of Raphael], English, The Life of Raphael. Boston: Cupples and Hurd, 1888; The Destruction of Rome: a Letter. Boston: Cupples, Upham, 1886; Beiträge zur deutschen Culturgeschichte. Berlin: W. Herts, 1897; Fragmente. Berlin: W. Spemann, 1900.
Subject's name: Herman Grimm
Lee Sorensen. "Grimm, Herman." Dictionary of Art Historians. www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org
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Last Updated8/7/24
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