Edward Theodor Compton - vendere e comprare opere
29 July 1849, Stoke Newington (England) - 22 March 1921, Feldafing (Germany)
Edward Theodor Compton was an English painter who is primarily known for his depictions of mountain landscapes.
Born in 1849 to an insurance agent in the English town of Stoke Newington, Compton produced nature studies from the age of fourteen onwards, and attended London’s Royal Academy of Art, among others. His family moved to Darmstadt in 1867: back then, under Grand Duke Louis III, it was a mecca for artists. In his new hometown, Compton junior and senior taught drawing, with their pupils including members of the nobility such as Princess Alice.
Some sketchbooks detailing his numerous trips and hikes during this period have been preserved. The Bernese Highlands and Lake Thurner had a lasting influence on the artist, who decided to specialise in depictions of mountain landscapes. The fact that Compton himself was a skilled, passionate mountaineer must surely have made this an easier decision.
Compton moved to Munich in 1869 where he presented his work in the Glaspalast for the first time, and married Auguste Amalie Plötz. Their honeymoon took the newlyweds to Austria and Italy, and after two years they settled down in Feldafing on Lake Starnberg. He passed his talent as an artist on to his children: his son Edward Harrison attracted renown as a landscape painter, his daughter Dora also painted mountain landscapes, and his daughter Marion specialised in flower painting and still lifes. Compton’s wanderlust took him to various places around the world over the subsequent years.
All told, the artist left behind a comprehensive oeuvre of oil paintings, watercolours and ink drawings, demonstrating impressive topographical accuracy. In addition to his work as a painter, Compton also enjoyed success as an illustrator for Alpine publications. His mountain landscapes were distributed as postcards, as well as in other forms. He visited the Grossglockner mountain for the last time in 1919, dying two years later in Feldafing.
Works by Edward Theodor Compton have enjoyed success at Dorotheum auctions for many years. On 7 October 2009, his painting “Sylvretta vom großen Maderer” (1910) sold for € 63,580 at an auction of “19th-Century Paintings”.