| Carl d'Unker | |
| Birth Name: | Carl Henrik Lützow d'Unker |
| Birth Date: | 1828 2, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Death Place: | Düsseldorf, Germany |
| Nationality: | Swedish |
| Field: | 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]