{{short description|German painter}}

thumb|325px|''A Sunny day on a Norwegian Fjord'' by August Leu (1862) '''August Wilhelm Leu''' (24 March 1818 – 20 July 1897) was a German landscape painter of the Romantic school. Most of his pictures are large-format and depict scenes in Norway and the Alps.

==Biography== Leu was born in Münster. He was a pupil of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, a landscape painter of the Düsseldorf school.<ref name=Salmonsen>A. Hk., "Leu, August Wilhelm", ''Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon'', 2nd ed. (1915–30), Volume XV: ''Kvadratrod – Ludmila'', p.&nbsp;724, [https://runeberg.org/salmonsen/2/15/0739.html online] at Project Runeberg {{in lang|da}}.</ref><ref name=Meyers>''Meyers Konversations-Lexikon'', 6th ed. (1902–13), Volume 12: ''L – Lyra'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=zYBMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA456 pp.&nbsp;456–57] {{in lang|de}}.</ref>

Leu travelled in Norway in 1843 and 1847, and later travelled widely in the Alps.<ref name=Meyers/> His Norwegian paintings raised awareness in Germany of that country's scenery.<ref name=Salmonsen/> He lived for a time in Brussels, then returned to Düsseldorf;<ref name=Meyers/> in 1855 he received an honourable mention at the Paris Exposition.<ref>''Zeitschrift für Bauwesen'' 6 (1856) [https://books.google.com/books?id=jz8_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA211 p.&nbsp;212] {{in lang|de}}.</ref> In 1882 he moved to Berlin,<ref name=Meyers/> where he became a royal professor and a member of the Academy of Art;<ref>''Catalogue of the Art Department of the Eighth Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, 1880'', Cincinnati: Robert Clarke, 1880, {{OCLC|229799766}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=E51AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5 p.&nbsp;5].</ref> he was also a member of the Vienna, Amsterdam and Brussels Academies.<ref name=Cyclopedia>"Leu, August (Wilhelm)", ''Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings'', ed. John Denison Champlin, Jr. and Charles C. Perkins, (1913 ed.), New York: Scribner's, {{OCLC|269766361}}, Volume 3, [https://books.google.com/books?id=EdNHAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA72 p.&nbsp;72].</ref><ref>Clara Erskine Clement Waters and Laurence Hutton, ''Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works: A Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches'', 5th ed. Boston: Osgood, 1889, {{OCLC|78151561}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7aEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA63 p.&nbsp;63].</ref> He received several gold medals in Berlin and was awarded the Belgian Order of Leopold.<ref name=Cyclopedia/>

His son, also named August Leu (1852–76) studied under him and was a landscape and animal painter.<ref name=Salmonsen/> Leu died in Seelisberg, Switzerland. {{Clear}}

==Selected works== * ''Hardangerfjord im Sonnenlicht (1849), Kunstverein Bremen (1849), now Private Collection in Norway'' * ''Norwegian Landscape with Waterfall'' (1849) * ''Sognefjord'' (1849) * ''Hohe Göll at Berchtesgaden'' (1859) * ''Oeschinen Lake'' (1876) * ''Queen Joanne's Palace at Naples'' (1886) * ''Pool at Blankenburg in the Harz Mountains'' (1888) * ''On the Engstlenalp'' (1893) * ''Königsee and Watzmann'' * ''Norwegian High Plateau'' * ''Sunset on the Coast at Sorrento'' {{Clear}}<!-- technical, don't remove --> <gallery mode=packed heights=133px> File:August Wilhelm Leu - Alpiner Berggipfel (1896).jpg|''Alpine Peak'' (1896) File:August Wilhelm Leu - Blick von der Wengerenalp auf Eiger und Mönch (1865).jpg|''View of the Eiger and the Mönch from the Wengerenalp'' (1865) File:August Wilhelm Leu - Fjordlandschaft mit Gletscher und Rentieren (1896).jpg|''Fjord Landscape with Glacier and Reindeer'' (1896) File:August Wilhelm Leu - Norwegische Fjordlandschaft (1849).jpg|''Norwegian Fjord Landscape'' (1849) File:August Wilhelm Leu Matterhorn.jpg|''Matterhorn'' </gallery>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|August Leu|August Leu}} * [http://www.van-ham.com/datenbank-archiv/datenbank/august-wilhelm-leu.html August Wilhelm Leu] at Van Ham auction house, Cologne {{in lang|de}} * [http://artist.christies.com/August-Wilhelm-Leu--32322.aspx August Wilhelm Leu] at Christie's auction house, London and New York

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leu, August Wilhelm}} Category:1818 births Category:1897 deaths Category:19th-century German painters Category:German male painters Category:German landscape painters Category:Artists from Münster Category:Painters from North Rhine-Westphalia Category:19th-century German male artists