Louis Asher

Portrait of Jenny Lind, 1845.

Louis Asher (originally Julius Ludwig Asher) was a German artist.

Life

Asher was born at Hamburg on June 26, 1804. He studied there under Gerdt Hardorf and Leo Lehmann, and in 1821 went for farther instruction to Dresden, and from there to Düsseldorf, where he entered the studio of Cornelius. There he got to know Kaulbach, with whom he continued a friendship throughout his life. In 1825 he accompanied Cornelius to Munich, where he was employed by him on the frescoes of the Glyptothek.

He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. In 1827 he returned to Hamburg, and then, in 1832, went through Berlin to Italy, where he remained for three years. On his return to Germany, with the exception of a second visit to Italy in 1839, in company with his friend Kaulbach, he lived in Munich and in Hamburg, where he died on March 7, 1878.

Works

Asher's works, which consist of historical pictures, genre paintings, and portraits, are found for the most part in Hamburg— both in public buildings and private collections.

The following are some of the best examples of his art:

• Peasant Family. 1835.
• Resurrection of Christ. 1851.
• King Lear with the dead body of Cordelia. 1854.
• St. Cecilia.
• Maria I'Ortolana.
• Portrait of Mile. Jenny Lind.

References

This article incorporates text from the article "ASHER, Louis (Julius Ludwig)" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.