Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Plett Foundation

The painting “The Castle Lake of Koenigsberg” by Johann Wientz (1781-1849).
At Koenigsberg some members of the Wiens
family developed marked artistic gifts. The best
known of them is Johann Wientz (this is the
spelling of the family’s name at Koenigsberg).
He was born April 16, 1781, at Langfuhr, near
Danzig, of Mennonite parents; Hermann Wiens
and Sara Epp. In his early youth he went to
Koenigsberg, probably about 1800, because it is
mentioned that he became a student at Koenigsberg
University. Perhaps it was at that time that
he also left the Mennonite church because of the
prejudice still existing against art as a profession
for young Mennonites. A contemporary writer
who must have known Johann Wientz personally
tells us: “As an artistic career is contrary to the
views of the Mennonite congregation, Wientz
made the sacrifice of leaving the religion in
which he had been educated.”
Wientz received his artistic training in
Berlin. After 1826 he was a drawing-master at
Koenigsberg University and at the Cathedral
Grammar School, also at Koenigsberg. His
artistic work soon gained much recognition,
for he was a member of the committee of the
Koenigsberg Fine Arts Society in the thirties
and forties. He died August 18, 1849, at Elbing,
where he had made an excursion.
His works comprise portraits in oil and in
miniature, general paintings and views of Koenigsberg.
He seems especially to have excelled
in miniature portraits. One of his earliest works,
a portrait of the Koenigsberg writer, Johann
George Scheffner, dated 1812, was evidently
a miniature. Scheffner himself praises it for its
remarkable likeness. But Wientz also painted
many portraits in oil, two of which will be
found with this article; the Koenigsberg distiller
Heinrich Kauenhowen (1797-1878), and his
wife Elisabeth, nee Sprunck (1801-1878). Unfortunately
the originals of these paintings were
lost in the late war in Silesia. The two pictures
are a convincing example of good craftsmanship
and of the type of the thrifty and honorable
Koenigsberg Mennonites of that time.
Of Wientz’ genre painting the example reproduced
with this article conveys a good idea.
It also shows good workmanship, although it
cannot be denied that it lacks in individuality.
The painting with the artist’s nameplate, no
doubt, depicts a young girl taking leave from
an older one, but it certainly has some relation
to a literary theme of the time.
The artist likely achieved his best work in
his views of Koenigsberg. One subject which
attracted him again and again was the Castle
Lake situated in the heart of the ancient city and
affording a fine view of some of its characteristic
churches.
He painted these views several times, both
in oil and in watercolors. They show a careful
and delicate execution and their coloring is
mentioned as particularly tasteful. Of the scene
depicted in these paintings almost nothing remains
but rubble.
Johann Wientz was not the only talented
member of his family. His brother Wilhelm
Wientz seems to have been especially interested
in architecture, for be showed a cardboard model
of the Koenigsberg Burgkirche at the 1833 exhibition
of the Koenigsberg Fine Art Society.
His brother, Hermann Wientz, who married
Catharina Kauenhowen, became the father of
Emilie Wientz, who showed the artistic talent
of her uncle in a marked degree. She was born
at Koeniggberg December 21, 1813, and died at
Elbing January 12, 1900; she remained unmarried.
Two of her drawings had been preserved in
the Koenigsberg Historical Museum. They show
Alexander Kauenhowen and his sister Jenny,
whose father was Heinrich Kauenhowen, a cousin
to Emilie Wientz. The pictures illustrate the
same carefulness and delicacy of treatment to be
noticed in the work of her uncle. It seems to me
that they show more psychological penetration
than the former. Look at the somewhat sombre
Magdalene Zimmermann, nee van Kampen, by Heinrich
Zimmermann (1804-1845). Shows Mennonite
costume in Danzig at that period.
Preservings No. 25, December 2005 - 59