348 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



of the University at Bonn, aided by Ms friends Hermann and Forster. 

 Dissatisfied with his own share in the work, he seriously thought of 

 renouncing painting as a profession, and of gaining his livelihood as a 

 teacher of drawing. Better counsels, however, prevailed, and when, in 

 1825, Cornelius became Director of the Academy at Munich, Kaul- 

 bach followed him with his fellow-pupils. Before leaving Dusseldorf, 

 he visited the Lunatic Asylum, under the guidance of a doctor con- 

 nected with the establishment, and received from him a great deal of 

 information about the unfortunate patients. The deep impression 

 which this visit made on his mind showed itself in one of his most 

 celebrated works, " The Nai-renhaus," which he painted at Munich in 

 1828 from studies made on the spot. This painfully realistic repre- 

 sentation of one of the most melancholy scenes which human eyes can 

 rest upon gave him a European reputation. The picture was engraved 

 by H. Marz, and lengthily discussed in a volume written by Guido 

 Goerres, the son of the poet, in which, like a true German, he explains 

 it as an allegory. This is an error, since its truth to nature is its chief 

 merit, as it is its chief defect, for were the subject treated allegorically 

 it would be less objectionable. From the surly jailer, with his pipe in 

 his mouth and his keys jingling at his back, through the whole crowd 

 of vacant, sorrowful, suffering, imbecile, and maddened unfortunates, 

 who sit, stand, or struggle together in the prison-yard under his eyes, 

 it is all stern, sad truth. 



Kaulbach's fiist works at Munich were the frescoes in the arcades of 

 the Hofgarten ; a mural painting of Apollo and the Muses, in the Con- 

 cert Hall of the Odeon ; and subjects from the fable of Cupid and 

 Psyche, in the palace of Duke Max. Von Klenze, who took him into 

 favor, also obtained for him a commission to paint twelve subjects from 

 Klopstock's " Arminius," in the Queen's Throne Hall. 



Any one who has seen these frescoes will remember the confused 

 impression which they leave upon the mind. Amid the crowd of forms 

 in mannered and violent action, there is much that would be effective, 

 were there repose anywhere. There is strenuous thought and vigor- 

 ous drawing, but no contrasted gentleness or beauty, which last may 

 be said to be unknown to German artists, from Meister Wilhelm of 

 Cologne, down to the painters of the present time, with perhaps the 

 exception, to a limited degree, of Bendemann, Hess, and Overbeck^ 

 In Italy, the feeling for beauty expresses itself in plastic and in pic- 

 torial art ; in France, taste, which is one of the attributes of beauty, is 

 seldom wanting ; in Germany, character and energy of expression are 

 seldom softened by aesthetic charm. If Kaulbach can be said to have 



