Carl d'Unker

Carl d'Unker
Born	Carl Henrik Lützow d'Unker (1828-02-09)9 February 1828 Stockholm, Sweden
Died	24 March 1866(1866-03-24) (aged 38) Düsseldorf, Germany
Nationality	Swedish
Known for	Painter
Movement	Düsseldorf school of painting

Carl Henrik Lützow d'Unker (9 February 1828 – 24 March 1866)^[1] was a Swedish artist. He was the first in a large number of Swedish artists who studied in Düsseldorf between 1850 and 1870. He was known mostly as a socially oriented genre painter whose works depicted contemporary subjects, such as waiting rooms at railway stations or scenes from pawnshops.^[2][3]

He was born in Stockholm, Sweden. His father, Carl Henning d'Unker, was a Norwegian soldier, while his mother, Anna Christina Brunstedt, was a Swedish citizen. He began his career as a soldier and served in the Svea Life Guards for a short time.^[4] In 1848 he volunteered for the First Schleswig War (1848–1849).^[5] Shortly after his return to Sweden he abandoned his military career in favor of an artistic one. He moved to Düsseldorf from 1851-1853 to study painting where he became a student of Karl Ferdinand Sohn (1805–1867).^[6][3]

During the years 1856 and 1857, he conducted study trips in Westphalia, Belgium and Paris. He attended the art academy in Amsterdam during 1859. He became a very popular artist on the continent. From 1861 he suffered from sickness in his right arm and was forced to paint with his left arm. He made a brief visit to Sweden in 1865 and was appointed professor by King Charles XV of Sweden. He died the following year in Düsseldorf.^[5][3]

On 25 June 1859, he married Clara Wilhelmine Therese Karoline Antonie Schnitzler (b. 1839), the daughter of master builder Peter Heinrich Gregor Anton Schnitzler (1796–1873), after which he was able to live a carefree life financially. In 1864 he and his wife had a son, Detlev Wilhelm Albert d'Unker Luetzow.^[7][3]

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  Woman with a Rosary (1853)
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  Second-class waiting room (ca 1865)
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  Third-class waiting room II (1865)
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  Gypsy Family in Prison (1864)
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  The Pawnshop II (1859)
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  The Pawnshop (V) (1860)
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  A gambling party - illustration to scene 1 of La traviata.