Italy, Destination of Desire – Artist travels through Europe

As part of the exhibition “Italy, Destination of Desire: The Painter Ernst Welker on Travels and in the Salon of the Duchess of Courland” we are starting a community campaign: Under the hashtag #Künstlerreisen (artist travels) we collect photos, images, information, videos and blog posts on social networks about artists who, like Ernst Welker, travel (or traveled) through Europe. On this page we collect submitted contributions. Our goal is to get in contact and talk about art and history.

Ernst Welker: View of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (collection Museum Burg Posterstein)
Ernst Welker: View of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (collection Museum Burg Posterstein)

The exhibition “Italy, Destination of Desire” in Museum Burg Posterstein

The exhibition “Italy, Destination of Desire: The Painter Ernst Welker on Travels and in the Salon of the Duchess of Courland” presents the life and the work of the painter Ernst Welker (1784-1857). As the drawing teacher of the granddaughters of the Duchess of Courland he also stayed in her castle Löbichau near Posterstein, Thuringia, Germany. There he portrayed the salon guests as mythical creatures and painted scenes from Löbichau salon life. The exhibition can be seen from July, 17th, to November, 13th. Read about the exhibition.

Ernst Welker: Herzog August von Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg (collection Museum Burg Posterstein)
One of the guests in Anna Dorothea of Courland’s salon was Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Ernst Welker portraid him as peacock.

A part of the museum’s Welker collection you find in Europeana digital collection.

Welker’s travels took him through Germany, Austria and Italy. In the exhibition we will follow Welkers journeys and show landscape paintings. Furthermore we give an introduction to Anna Dorothea of Courland’s salon in Löbichau Castle and show Welkers drawings of salon guests.

Mysterious Welker: connecting researchers throughout Europe

Surprisingly, there exist no publications (of which we are aware) that focus on Ernst Welker’s work. The book accompanying the Posterstein exhibition traces Welker’s life based on the museum collection and research, as well as the sources available to date, and is scheduled to be published on September 18, 2022.

There are certainly gaps in Welker’s biography. That is why we are starting a project as part of the exhibition that calls for the collection and exchange of research data. We would like to call on scientists from all over Europe to network and close research gaps.