Gustav Heinrich Julius Koken (8 August 1850, Hanover - 6 July 1910, Hanover) was a German painter and etcher. He was the nephew of Edmund Koken, a landscape painter, and the father of Änne Koken, a graphic designer.Hugo Thielen: Koken, (4) Gustav. In: Dirk Böttcher, Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: , Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, , ().
Biography
He was initially given art lessons by his uncle Edmund. After leaving Hanover for a time, to tour Germany, he enrolled at the Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar in 1872. His primary instructor there was Theodor Hagen. In addition to painting, he studied etching and had his own studio in Weimar until 1878.
That year, he returned to Hanover, where he became a member of the . Immediately after, he began a campaign for the creation of new galleries and a reorganization of the exhibition system. He was also involved in establishing and art museum at the .
In order to gain further inspiration, he travelled frequently; visiting Emsland, the Teutoburg Forest, the Lüneburg Heath and the Südheide (now a nature park). During this time, he was offered a professorship at the Kunstakademie Königsberg, but he declined because he wanted to remain in his homeland. Instead, he founded a private painting school in Hanover.
He was a good friend of the opera singer, , who would often perform in his home. Together with the painters Hermann Schaper, and Ernst Pasqual Jordan, he decorated the singer's home, known as the "Salle Nollet".Alheidis von Rohr: "Das königliche Zimmer des Georg Nollet in Hannover – ein Geburtstagsgeschenk." In: Andreas Urban: Deutungen, Bedeutungen. Beiträge zu Hannovers Stadt- und Landesgeschichte. Festschrift für Waldemar R. Röhrbein zum 75. Geburtstag, Historisches Museum am Hohen Ufer, 2010, , pgs.201–217.
One month before his sixtieth birthday, he died suddenly from a heart attack. Following his death, a special exhibition was held.Waldemar R. Röhrbein: "Kunstgewerbemuseum im Leibnizhaus." In: Stadtlexikon Hannover. pg.377. In 2004, the Historisches Museum Hannover presented a retrospective of works by every member of the Koken family.Helmut Knocke, Hugo Thielen: "2004." In: Hannover Kunst- und Kultur-Lexikon. pg.45.
References
Further reading Koken, Gustav. In: Hans Vollmer (Ed.): Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart (Thieme-Becker). Vol.21: Knip–Krüger. E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1927, pg.214 (Online) Kathrin Umbach, Ulrike Weiß (Eds.): "Gustav Koken (1850 -1910)", In: Edmund, Gustav & Paul Koken. Von Sehnsucht und Erfolg einer Malerfamilie ( Schriften des Historischen Museums Hannover, Vol.23), Hannover Historisches Museum, 2004,
External links
"Gustav Koken" in the Neue Deutsche Biographie