Oak Leaves

1798–1801

Studies at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen

Having decided to become an artist, Runge studies at the Copenhagen Academy under Jens Juel and Nicolai Abildgaard with the financial support of his brother Daniel; Caspar David Friedrich had studied there shortly before him. He draws from the nude and studies anatomy, geometry and perspective. Some accounts date the start of his studies to 1799.

1801–1804

The Dresden Academy and the circle of Romantics

In 1801 Runge moves to Dresden and studies at the Academy under Anton Graff until 1804. He grows close to the “Dresden Romantics” — Caspar David Friedrich, Johann Gottfried Quistorp and Ludwig Tieck; Tieck introduces him to the mystical treatises of Jakob Böhme and to the ideas of Novalis.

3 april 1804

Married: Pauline Runge

1807

Arrives at the idea of the color sphere

In 1807 Runge arrives at the concept of the color sphere, expanding the hue circle into a sphere with white and black as its opposite poles, as his letter to Goethe of 21 November 1807 shows. He hoped that his disk color-mixing experiments, dated 1807 or by other accounts 1808, would give the sphere scientific support.

1810

The “Color Sphere” (Farben-Kugel) is published

Early in 1810 the treatise “Color Sphere” (Farben-Kugel) is published in Hamburg: a description of the sphere, an illustrated essay on the rules of color harmony and an essay on color in nature by Runge's friend Henrik Steffens. Goethe, who had read the manuscript before publication, mentions it in his Theory of Colors (1810) as successfully concluding efforts of this kind.

2 December 1810

Death in Hamburg

On 2 December 1810 Runge dies in Hamburg of consumption (tuberculosis) at the age of thirty-three, his life's work spanning little more than ten years. His youngest child is born the next day and is given his father's name.