In the later part of the 19th century, changing ideas about how theatre should be made created a demand for more realistic staging – a demand met on an industrial scale by workshops that sold scenery and other staging requirements from a catalogue.
The second half of the 19th century was a period of great change, brought about by the industrial revolution, advances in science and new ideas on religion, government, and culture. The theatre responded by seeking to project new visions: romanticism and classicism gave way to naturalism and realism. Interest in historical accuracy grew like never before. Archaeological precision was expected in the architecture represented on stages, in the furniture, curtains and in all the ornamental details that appeared on stage, and in the costumes in action, style and form. This new trend toward historical accuracy was costly, because instead of using the same sets and costumes repeatedly, sets had to be designed and built to be the visual embodiment of the action in a specific time and place. The number of theatres increased and theatre workshops and set decoration studios grew. Catalogues were printed so that the theatres could place their orders directly with the studios, and the painted scenes were made according to the stage measurements.
The historical rigour was already notable in the productions made between 1850 and 1859 by the director Charles Kean (Q30559). His repertoire was composed almost entirely of poetic drama (especially Shakespeare) and melodramas in which he introduced his ‘improvements’. The sets featured impressive painted panoramas and multiple machine effects. Kean’s productions became known and admired throughout Europe, especially in Germany. For example, Friedrich Haase (Q30560) had seen productions by Charles Kean in London, and declared himself indebted to them. Haase became famous for his productions at the court in Saxe-Coburg-Gotha from 1866 to 1868 and in Leipzig from 1870 to 1876. These productions were designed by the brothers Max and Gotthold Brückner (Q30561, Q30562). The Brückners would later be employed by the two most influential director-managers of the last quarter of the 19th century.
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For four decades (1870-1913), Max Brückner ran one of Germany’s leading scenic art studios in Coburg in northern Bavaria with his younger brother Gotthold. Max Brückner was a great theatre painter and landscape painter born in Coburg. His father, Heinrich Brückner was also a painter at the Hoftheater in Coburg and his first teacher.
In 1863 Max Bückner began working at the Stadttheater Köln (Q17047). He was on good terms with Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Prince Albert’s older brother, who would become consort of Queen Victoria of England). The Duke for example paid for Brückner’s study trip to London, where he became acquainted with the burgeoning naturalistic-historical set design and the latest achievements in theatrical machinery. Then in 1865 the Duke appointed Brückner life theatre painter at the Hoftheater in Coburg (Q8050), with express permission to accept foreign commissions.
Max Brückner then founded a studio in the family home in Coburg in 1870, and two years later his younger brother Gotthold joined him. The ‘Gebrüder Brückner - Atelier für szenische Bühnenbilder’ (The Brückner Brothers – Scenic Workshop) produced set designs for all major theatres in Germany for the next 40 years. In 1874, through the mediation of Carl Brandt (Q414), the best-known theatre engineer of the time, he came into contact with Richard Wagner, for whom he initially created the sets for the Ring des Nibelungen, between 1882 and 1911 sets for all of Wagner’s major operas were created in the Brückner workshop. They also designed sets for King Ludwig II of Bavaria and regularly did work abroad, for example Darmstadt, Mannheim, Wiesbaden, Hamburg, Cologne, Zurich, Petersburg and New York.
The Brückner brothers’ stage sets were known for their historically accurate depiction and strong yet subtle colouring, and achieved world fame over decades. They made various efforts to combine painted scenery with sculptural set design, experimented with shifting and cyclorama horizons, and with the use of lighting as a means of scenic design.
As Max Brückner had no children, he appointed his pupil Max Kürschner as his successor; from 1913 the company was called ‘Max Brückner Nachfolger Max Kürschner - Atelier für szenische Bühnenbilder’. He went blind in 1914 and donated his estate to the art collections of the Veste Coburg. Parts of his archive is in the Theatre Studies Collection of the University of Cologne, including catalogues for painted sets in different sizes. Some of Brückner’s scenery can be seen in the Meiningen Theatre Museum (Q9287).
At a time of great demand for theatre, and for theatre presented in a detailed and realistic style, the Brückner Brothers developed a model of scenic design, construction and painting that followed the industrial and commercial model of the age.