Bernhard Plockhorst
1825–1907 · German religious painter of the 19th century
Bernhard Plockhorst (Brunswick, 1825 – Berlin, 1907) was a German painter and graphic artist who began his training in lithography. In Germany he is mainly known to specialists, while his pictures have remained very popular in the United States, where reproductions hang in many homes and churches.
After lithography studies in his native city, he trained with Carl von Piloty in Leipzig and Munich, where he copied Rubens and Titian in the Old Pinakothek, and with Thomas Couture in Paris in 1853. Study trips took him to Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy before he settled in Berlin, where he painted portraits and the large canvas Mary and John Returning from the Tomb of Christ. From then on he devoted himself mostly to religious painting. He taught at the Weimar art school from 1866 to 1869, and after returning to Berlin he exhibited The Battle of Archangel Michael with Satan in 1872, regarded as his chief work.
His style belongs to the late Nazarene movement, with medieval and religious subjects close to the Pre-Raphaelite interest in early art. Notable works include Let the Children Come to Me, The Guardian Angel and Luther on Christmas Eve. He also painted Franz Liszt and portraits of Emperor Wilhelm I and Empress Augusta. His influence is visible in stained glass windows in several American churches and in the wide circulation of his religious prints.