REHBENITZ, Theodor Markus - b. 1791 Holstein, d. 1861 Kiel

German painter and draughtsman. He attended school in Lübeck, then began studying law in Heidelberg. During 1813-16 he lived in Vienna, taking drawing-lessons from Joseph Sutter (1781-1866) and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. In 1816 he went to Rome, where his brother-in-law, Friedrich Overbeck, was already established. Rehbenitz made friends with Friedrich Olivier and shared accommodation with him and Schnorr von Carolsfeld in the Palazzo Caffarelli; this earned the three of them the nickname of the ‘Kapitoliner’. Unlike many of the Nazarenes, Rehbenitz kept his Protestant faith, which distinguished him from the circle around Overbeck.

The artistic experiments that he conducted in Rome did not bring him success. In his letters, Schnorr described how slowly Rehbenitz worked, although initially the results seemed promising. When the Canon of Naumburg, Christian Leberecht, Baron von Ampach, wished to commission nine pictures from different artists, Rehbenitz was included, despite reservations. In the event he proved unable to complete the Temptation of Christ (Naumberg Cathedral, chapter house) that had been assigned to him; Schnorr von Carolsfeld had to step in. Only a small amount of work from the Italian period has survived.

Self-Portrait

The German Romantic draftsmen also excelled in portraiture, where they achieved a limpid candour. They were generous, but they missed nothing. This is self-evidently true of the self-portrait by the relatively unknown artist, Theodor Markus Rehbenitz. For ardor, insight and an epigrammatic elegance, that little pencil drawing would be hard to beat.