Rudolf Hellgrewe
Rudolf Hellgrewe was a landscape painter and illustrator. He taught for a long time at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin. He is the most famous painter of Germany's colonies.
Hellgrewe was born in Hammerstein in the Province of Prussia. He attended the Königstädtische Realschule and later the Andreas Realschule in Berlin before studying under Eugen Bracht and Christian Wilberg at the Berliner Kunstakademie. He was drawn to landscape painting, and became known as the "painter of Brandenburg's lakes and sunsets".
In 1885–86 Hellgrewe travelled to East Africa, where he made numerous paintings. He later illustrated the books of the African explorers Carl Peters and Hermann von Wissmann, and produced dioramas of life in Germany's tropical colonies for use in schools. In 1888 at Berlin he published many of his works as a book, Aus Deutsch-Ostafrika. He took part in the colonial exhibitions of 1896 and 1907, and was one of the founding members of the Deutsches Kolonialmuseum in 1899. He also joined the Berliner Schriftsteller-Klub. In 1903 the great Deutsche Kolonialhaus was constructed based on the native architecture of the colonies. Hellgrewe provided the ceiling paintings.
Hellgrewe received Medal for Art and Science from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Honorary Medal of the Geographical Society of Jena. He died at Berlin in 1935. By his wife, Anna Lagatz, whom he married 2 April 1887, he left three children: Joachim, Anne Marie and Wolf Dietrich. Joachim followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a landscape painter and art restorer. Joachim died 30 March 1956.
