Peter Conrad
Schreiber

Peter Conrad Schreiber, born on August 11, 1816, in Fürth, the son of master belt maker Johann Christoph Schreiber and his wife Katharina Barbara, née Hüttner, attended the so-called Werkschule (school of applied arts), as the elementary school was then called, as well as Sunday school, attended confirmation classes, and completed an apprenticeship as an engraver in his father's business. His father, Johann Christoph Schreiber, a master belt maker and button manufacturer, was a wealthy and respected citizen of Fürth who was awarded the Gold Medal of the Bavarian Crown's Order of Civil Merit for his services to the community on April 15, 1853. After completing his apprenticeship as an engraver in his father's business, his father sent him to study with Albert Reindel at the Royal School of Applied Arts in Nuremberg.

Following this, from 1835 to 1838, he spent four years at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. His sponsor, teacher, and mentor was August Wilhelm Schirmer (1802–1866). The best of his students had the opportunity to participate in the biennial exhibitions of the Berlin Art Academy and, with their teacher's consent, to be listed as their "students" in the exhibition catalogs. Peter Conrad Schreiber's name can also be found in these catalogs.

Schreiber's closest artist friends included Ferdinand Bellermann, Friedrich August Elsasser, Bernhard Fries, Adrian Ludwig Richter, August Carl Haun, Hermann Schäfer, and Raphael Schall. He maintained a lifelong friendship with Ferdinand Bellermann, with whom he undertook several long study trips. Thomas von Taschitzki describes the detailed travel accounts in his book "Observation and Ideal: Ferdinand Bellermann, a Painter from Humboldt's Circle."

 Schreiber's greatest role model and inspiration, however, was Carl Rottmann, whose works he had encountered during his stay in Munich in 1839. In his 1842 oil painting "Italian Landscape," one can clearly sense his affinity with Rottmann. Peter Conrad Schreiber himself undertook several excursions into the mountains during his time in Munich. The title of the later painting, "Hohenschwangau Castle," points to the Füssen area. The contacts with fellow Munich artists, facilitated by Reindel, showed Schreiber that depictions of the Alps were very lucrative for Munich painters. The purchasing public sought such motifs for their salons. The threatening yet simultaneously sublime view of the mountains appealed to viewers. Schreiber was not blind to this, as his later Alpine paintings, such as the Ötztaler Ferner, the Watzmann, the Dachstein, and the Hohensalzburg, demonstrate.

 After his time in Munich, he spent two and a half years in Italy (1839–1841), which shaped his artistic work for a lifetime. In his Italian paintings, too, he chose not only the perilous Sabine and Alban Hills near Rome, but also repeatedly the rugged rocks of the Italian mountains and mountain landscapes. This was the heyday of gouache paints, as they could render the brightness of the Mediterranean landscape more intensely than other paints, and Peter Conrad Schreiber mastered this masterfully. One could call him an atmospheric impressionist who simultaneously gave his paintings a personal touch.

After his return from Italy, P. C. Schreiber was employed as an art teacher at the Egidien-Gymnasium in Nuremberg during the 1844/1845 school year, until he resigned from his position in February 1874 due to increasing eye fatigue. Schreiber lived and worked in Nuremberg until his death. During this time, he also created many oil paintings, gouaches, drawings, and lithographs depicting Nuremberg cityscapes. He participated in many exhibitions organized by art associations, including those at national and regional levels. He received many commissions, including from abroad, so that he and his family could make a good living from his art. Many of his paintings are still in private hands, including abroad. Peter Conrad Schreiber died on February 17, 1894, and was buried in Nuremberg's Central Cemetery. Once a respected and esteemed artist who was forgotten in the turmoil of the two world wars, he is now experiencing his well-deserved renaissance. (2025) ____________________

Entry (with additions) from the Nuremberg Artists' Lexicon, edited by Manfred H. Grieb: Son of Johann Christoph, master belt maker. ∞ I) Elisa Kunigunda Friederika Hommel († October 3, 1846); II) July 4, 1847 Juliane Karoline Elise Krieg (July 26, 1829–March 23, 1894), 6 children. Attended the Nuremberg Art School under Albert Reindel. He studied at the Düsseldorf Academy under Wilhelm Schirmer, also in Berlin and Munich. On May 12, 1836, he climbed the Brocken in the Harz Mountains. He undertook another trip to the Harz Mountains from the end of April to August 1837 with his friend Ferdinand Bellermann. From 1836 to 1839, he exhibited in Berlin. There, in 1838, he showed the oil painting "Der Blocksberg, after Goethe's Faust," which can perhaps be identified with "Walpurgis Night in the Harz Mountains" in the municipal collections of the Fürth Archives and is likely a result of Schreiber's travels to the Harz Mountains.

He then spent several years in Italy, staying in Rome in 1840. He returned to Fürth in 1841/42, and in 1845 he settled in Nuremberg, where he worked for several decades as an art teacher at the St. Egidien Gymnasium.

His works include Italian landscapes and cityscapes of Nuremberg. His painting "La Cervara in the Roman Campagna," which he exhibited at the Albrecht Dürer Society, was praised by the reviewer in the Nürnberger Kurier of August 29, 1842: "La Cervara in the Roman Campagna, No. 131 by Schreiber in Fürth, is in a warm tone; A depicted nature, as it is often enthusiastically described by travelers who have visited Italy. Deep blue skies reflected in the lakes of this beautiful country, and sunshine that creates the clearest, most transparent day and the most diverse play of colors." In 1843, Duke Ernst of Coburg won a "View of the Volscian Mountains" painted by Schreiber in the Albrecht Dürer Society's raffle. In 1844, Schreiber exhibited an oil painting "Nuremberg and its Surroundings" at the Albrecht Dürer House. In 1845, he showed two oil paintings at the same venue: "Swampy Scene from Buch in Prussia" and "Canal Bridge near Doos." On April 21, 1845, Albert Reindl, director of the Nuremberg School of Applied Arts, confirmed Schreiber's stated artistic value for some of his unsold paintings as appropriate, with "Sumpfpartie" (Swamp Scene) being valued at 165 guilders and "Dooserbrücke" (Doos Bridge) at 66 guilders. Schreiber valued "Nuremberg Castle" at 110 guilders. This could be a painting about which a reviewer in the "Nürnberger Zeitung" enthusiastically commented on January 31, 1844:

"Currently on display in the Albrecht Dürer House is an oil painting that, not without reason, appeals to general approval due to its many merits. This is the Nuremberg Castle painted by Schreiber with medieval staffage, which lends the picture a very specific expression of romantic-historical character. The castle itself glows from the fragrance of a beautiful autumn morning, and the sun strikes the light streaks of fleeting mist over the parapet walls into the city moat, while a procession of knights and squires moves in a carefree manner across the lowered bridge. The painting testifies to the artist's profound conception and careful study of faithfully portraying nature; the poetic quality of the staffage was, however, a fortunate idea of ​​the painter, for it gives the picture an immense vitality. A representation of the period when Nuremberg was at the height of its existence. The architectural forms of the painting are taken from the present; only the pillars of the drawbridge, which enhance the overall effect, are added from the past. The artist, who until then had devoted leisure and diligence to depicting Italian landscapes, has provided vigorous proof with this painting that he also knows how to paint German landscapes, whose tone, while not as hot as those, can still be kept warm enough to appear to the eye as an extremely pleasing subject. The painting will receive the deserved recognition from artists and art lovers. It is to be expected that the Albrecht Dürer Society will purchase the painting, as there must be considerable interest in it, especially in Nuremberg." A fourth painting, whose artistic value of 150 guilders Reindl confirmed in 1845, was titled "Parnassus," a fifth, "Civitella," which was said to be worth 80 guilders. These works could be identical to Schreiber's "Apollo among the Shepherds on Mount Parnassus" and "Civitella," which were exhibited in Bremen in 1843, along with a "Forest Scene from Southern Italy in Stormy Weather," and were reviewed by Wilhelm Erst Weber: "Three works by C. Schreiber in Nuremberg were peculiar, perhaps focusing a little too much on the play of colors and the effect: "Forest Scene from Southern Italy in Stormy Weather," "Civitella" (in the Sabine Mountains behind Tivoli), and especially the poetically brilliant, yet excessively colorful depiction of "Apollo among the Shepherds on Mount Parnassus." (Wilhelm Ernst Weber: Letter concerning the painting exhibition in Bremen in April and May 1842, Bremen 1844, p. 57). For the Faber Palace in Schwarzenbruck, Schreiber painted three murals, some depicting Italian motifs, some depicting Faber's possessions. Based on his model, Johann Martin Friedrich Geißler engraved a panoramic view of Nuremberg from the south. Th. Rothbarth lithographed a sheet with several views of Nuremberg after Schreiber. In the Albrecht Dürer Society's raffle on February 12, 1857, King Maximilian II of Bavaria won the prize,

an oil painting by Schreiber depicting the Pentagonal Tower (dated 1856, now in the Bavarian State Painting Collection in Munich).

In March 1859, he exhibited a "Part of the Castle in Nuremberg" and a "Part near Olevano" at the Albrecht Dürer Society. In 1865, his "Lake Avernus near Naples" from the Nuremberg Art Society's collection was shown in Regensburg and offered for sale for 66 guilders. In 1868, a "Part of the Jewish Cemetery in Fürth" by Schreiber was on display at the Würzburg Art Society, which was supposed to cost 66 guilders, as well as another version of "Lake Avernus near Naples," which was available for 77 guilders. Schreiber moved frequently. In 1846 he lived at p. 391 (Albrecht-Dürer-Straße 15), in 1850 at p. 93 (Winklerstraße 5), and in 1854/57 at p. 385 (Albrecht-Dürer-Straße 27). In 1859, he offered painting lessons for amateurs in the Nuremberg Courier (Peace and War Courier) at his apartment at p. 1355 (Hischelgasse 24). In 1878 he lived at Obere Turnstraße 6, in 1881 at Obere Feldgasse 4, and in 1888/94 at Bärenschanzstraße 29.

MuS: NUREMBERG, GNM; –, MStN.

Lit.: Thieme-Becker; Nagler, KL and Monogr.; v. Boetticher; Schornsches Kunstblatt, 1847, p. 230; F. Zink, in: JbfFL 47, 1987, pp. 221f.; Schwammberger, Fürth from A to Z, p. 330. Exhibitions: 1841/1; 1842/1, p. 17; 1877/1; 1912/1; 1942/1; 1955/4; 1958/5; 1959/4; 1960/5; 1981/1 No. 1. _____________________ Recent literature: Wolfgang Vorwerk: Peter Conrad Schreiber, a Fürth landscape painter in the 19th century. A contribution to the 200th birthday of Peter Conrad Schreiber, first published in the Fürther Geschichtsblätter (issues 4/15 and 1/16).