German painter, draughtsman and etcher
In 1805 he moved together with his brother Ferdinand to Kassel, where two elder brothers of them, Jakob and Wilhelm, already lived. Until end of 1805 he went to school quite unenthusiastically. From 1805-1808 he studied at the academy of arts in Kassel under G. Kobold (1769-1809), A. Range (1762-1828) and E.F.F. Robert (1763-1843).
Through his brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm he got to know C. Brentano (1778-1842) and A. von Arnim (1781-1831) and with both of them he worked together. In 1807 he made some illustrations for the „Wunderhorn“ and the „Einsiedlerzeitung“. Probably in the same year Grimm met Bettine Brentano (1785-1859) making several portraits of her.
November 1808 he moved to Landshut, where he lived together with Brentano and and his brother in law F.C. von Savigny. By their advice he started to study in Munich in 1809. There he learned the art of engraving under C. Heß (1755-1828) and studied at the academy of arts under A. Seidl (1760-1834). Because he participated the German campaign during the Napoleonic Wars in 1814 he had to interrupt his studies.
In 1815 he met Goethe in Frankfurt. Spring 1816 he travelled to Italy and he make many drawings during this journey. In Rome he had contact with artists of the Nazarene movement, esp. with F. Overbeck (1789-1869). In 1817 he came back to Kassel. Back in Germany he published a series of etchings with pictures from Italy, very well appraised by Goethe and Schinkel.
In 1824 Grimm travelled for the first time to Willingshausen and he became one of the co-founders of the Willingshausen Painters' Colony, Germany's oldest artists' association. In 1832 Grimm became professor at the academy of arts in Kassel.
1842, after his wife had died, Grimm moved to his brother Wilhelm to Berlin, where he etched the well-known double portrait of Jakob und Wilhelm Grimm.
Bibliography
Gerhard Freund, Ludwig Emil Grimm: Maler und Radierer des 19. Jahrhunderts, Steinau, 1990.
Ingrid Koszinowski u. Vera Leuschner, Ludwig Emil Grimm, 1790 - 1863, Maler, Zeichner, Radierer. 2 Bde. Kassel, 1985.
I. Koszinowski/V. Leuschner, Marburg 1990, I 37. Even turned to the right the woman looks like being a preliminary study for the illustration „Dornröschen, die Königin im Bade, um 1840“ (op. cit. I 35, I 36).
