Peter Molitor

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Peter Molitor (Peter Joseph Molitor) was a German painter who lived from 1821 to 1898. He is linked to the Düsseldorf school of painting, a group known for its detailed and historical style.

Molitor was born in Koblenz to Peter Ferdinand Marcus Molitor, a baker, and Maria Anna Aleff. His father also served on the Koblenz city council. Showing talent early, Molitor left Koblenz for the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf to study art, but his studies were cut short when his parents died. He returned home to help the family business, then went back to the academy in 1841 to study portrait painting with Karl Ferdinand Sohn and to explore history painting. His first known work, a painting of Werner of Oberwesel, appeared a year after he finished his formal studies in 1844.

In 1851, with the help of Ernst Deger, Molitor worked on a project at the Aachen Town Hall with Alfred Rethel. He married Amalia Schneider in 1854. In 1857, they moved to Kapellen (near Koblenz) where their son Franz was born. The King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, funded wall paintings for Stolzenfels Castle, a project Molitor worked on during this time.

Back in Düsseldorf, the family grew with a third child born in 1860. Molitor joined the progressive artists’ group Malkasten and split his time between Düsseldorf and Koblenz. He spent six years painting the Passion Cycle, a large set of wall paintings for the Church of Saint Nikolaus in Koblenz. Some windows based on his designs were later destroyed in World War II.

In 1891 Molitor left Malkasten and, until 1895, created small drawings for the Association for the Dissemination of Religious Images. These drawings were turned into engravings by Josef Kohlschein and distributed.

Molitor sold his home in Düsseldorf in 1897 and moved to Oberlahnstein near Lahneck Castle to live with relatives. He died there nine months later from a stroke at the age of 76.

Selected works include a self-portrait from 1877 and scenes such as Cleric Leading a Blind Woman and The Boy Werner (also known as Werner of Oberwesel). Molitor is remembered as a 19th-century painter who created religious and historical works and was part of the Düsseldorfer Malerschule.