3-052-724 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. Wilhelm Kümpel, 1880. Engraving from a photograph by E. Albert and Co. 'In 1843 this gifted artist and musician became a student at the Düsseldorf Academy, and his pictures immediately attracted notice...His magnificent tenor voice and rare musical insight attracted the notice of Herr Capellmeister Krebs, of Dresden, and it was only by the influence of the leading professor of the Düsseldorf Academy...that he resisted constant pressure to become a professional singer. To escape the interruption of his professional studies by musical engagements he came to England, where he will long be remembered as an amateur musician by those to whom his pictures are unknown. Being an ardent advocate of German unity, his energy twice procured the remittance of large sums to Prussia in aid of national funds for the widows and orphans, victims of the Danish war of 1864...In 1876, through his numerous literary and artistic friends, and by a series of specimen-sketches which formed the nucleus of the New Forest Exhibition, he contributed largely to that awakening of public opinion which caused the preservation of the New Forest...his career of great promise...was cut short by heart-disease; and he died, at the age of fifty-eight'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.