The painter Alfred Rethel is a German history painter and is assigned to the late romanticism. Since his childhood, his greatest passion was romantic history and monumental painting. In particular, the depiction of battles was of great importance to Alfred Rethel and these were also immortalized by his greatest works of art. Alfred Rethel found the inspiration for his paintings largely in Greek art and history. In particular, his acquaintance with Carl Friedrich Lessing, also a German painter of the Romantic period, led him to history painting. Furthermore, the painter Alfred Rethel received great attention for his woodcut sequences such as the famous artwork "Auch ein Todtentanz". This woodcut sequence was enthusiastically received by conservative circles, especially because of its political statement. Although many of Alfred Rethel's paintings depict various battles in history, he was personally opposed to revolutionary movements and instead advocated the position of moderate progress. He was inclined towards the constitutional party and approached the ideal notion of the unity of Germany with great skepticism.
Alfred Rethel's father worked as a prefectural councilor for Napoleon I during the French period and emigrated from Strasbourg to Germany. When he came to Germany, he married Alfred's mother, whose family was involved in industry, and opened a chemical factory on the Diepenbenden estate in the southern part of the city of Aachen. This produced a variety of pigments and minerals and exported them to the Netherlands. Alfred Rethel was the fourth child of his parents and attended a one-class simultaneous school, where his talent for painting was recognized while he was still at school. Shortly thereafter, Alfred Rethel received his first drawing lessons from the German painter Johann Baptist Joseph Bastiné at the Aachen Drawing School. At the age of thirteen, Alfred Rethel already attended the art academy in Düsseldorf. There his teachers included the German history and portrait painter Heinrich Christoph Kolbe as well as the German painter Wilhelm Schadow, who introduced him to Nazarene art. His brother also attended the Düsseldorf Art Academy a few years later.
In addition to paintings of historical battles, painter Alfred Rethel made frescoes for the Frankfurt Imperial Hall and its rulers. The artwork of his life was the painting of the Coronation Hall in the City Hall of Aachen, where he depicted various themes from the life of Charlemagne. Both through this work of many years and through the production of the illustrations for the "Song of the Nibelungs" and "Hannibal's Train over the Alps", Alfred Rethel fell more and more into a mental derangement, which later developed into severe depression. Due to a serious and protracted illness of his wife, her healing and other formative life situations, Alfred Rethel's state of health kept fluctuating between good and bad. Later it turned out that the painter Alfred Rethel suffered from a brain disease, through which he died at the age of 43 after many years of caring for his relatives.
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 - (MeisterDrucke-252642).jpg "Death as Assassin, 1851 by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Death as a Friend, 1851 by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Nemesis, 1837 by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "The Harkort Factory at Burg Wetter on the Ruhr by Alfred Rethel")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-60366).jpg "Death as Assassin by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Dance of Death: Death as a Friend by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Allegory on the Suppression of the 1848 Revolution by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Die Nibelungen. How They Threw Down the Dead Out Of The Hall by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Death Before the Public House, from")
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.jpg "Death the Strangler, The First Outbreak of Cholera at a Masked Ball in Paris, 1831 by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death, Plate II by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Dance of Death: Death as a Friend by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "The Nibelungen: How Sir Dietrich")
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.jpg "Death Rides to Town, plate 2 from")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1242155).jpg "Death as Strangler by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death: Text Page by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "First Page from")
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.jpg "The Harkort Factory at Burg Wetter, c.1834 by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death, plate I by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Auch ein Todtentanz, plate IV by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Also a Dance of Death, plate VII by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Death on the Barricade, from")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-944003).jpg "The baptism of the Saxon chieftain Widukind, 785 (engraving) by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "In Quiet Solitude Death Relieves Man After His Life")
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.jpg "Die Nibelungen. Hagen of Troneck kills Iring by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Die Nibelungen. How the Queen Gave Orders to Burn Down the Hall, 1840-1841 by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Die Nibelungen. Etzel and Kriemhild, 1840-1841 by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death I by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "In the Midst of Turmoil and Lust, Man is Carried Off by Death by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death, plate III by Alfred Rethel")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1249866).jpg "Death as a Friend by Alfred Rethel")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1250159).jpg "Death as a Friend by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Die Nibelungen. Hagen")
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.jpg "Auch ein Todtentanz, Plate V by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Artist")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Artist")
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.jpg "Auch ein Todtentanz: Title Page by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death IV by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Die Nibelungen: How Gunther and Hagen and Kriemhild Were Slain by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death V by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "The Nibelungen. Kriemhild")
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.jpg "The Battle of Cordoba by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death III by Alfred Rethel")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1248295).jpg "Death the Strangler by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death II by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Death as a Strangler by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Death on the Tribune, from")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1240032).jpg "Death as a Friend by Alfred Rethel")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-687194).jpg "Nemesis (Crime and Justice) by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Death as Victor, from")
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.jpg "Die Nibelungen. How Rudigers corps is presented to Krimhild, 1840-1841 by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Another Dance of Death VI by Alfred Rethel")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1335442).jpg "Death as Friend by Alfred Rethel")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1019061).jpg "Otto III at the grave of Charlemagne by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Guardian Angel Rescues Maximilian in the Martinswand by Alfred Rethel")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1244515).jpg "Death as a Friend by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "St. Martin and the Beggar by Alfred Rethel")
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.jpg "Study of a Man by Alfred Rethel")
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