Hermann Neefe

Hermann Josef Neefe. Bust en face

Hermann Josef Neefe (born September 3, 1790 in Bonn , † February 24, 1854 in Vienna ) was a German painter.

Neefe was a son of the conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe and received his first musical lessons from him. Neefe played the violin as a child . At the age of 14 Neefe went to his uncle A. Rösner in Vienna, as he promised him sound musical training as an opera singer at the Burgtheater .

In his uncle's house, Neefe soon made the acquaintance of the engraver Jakob Christian Schlotterbeck . He supported Neefe with his first drawing work and helped him visit the Imperial and Royal Academy of Fine Arts . At the academy he was a. a. Master student with H. Janitsch. Of his teachers, Neefe was particularly influenced by the theater painter Antonio De Pian . Thanks to his support, Neefe received smaller assignments from various theaters during his training. Neefe married Regina Luz, the sister of Johanna Luz, the wife of Leopold Kupelwieser in Vienna .

Through his teachers he got to know the theater director Karl Friedrich Hensler and he soon engaged him for some work. His first major work was the design of the sets for a children's ballet by Friedrich Horschelt .

Soon after, Neefe returned to Germany and settled in Mannheim . After some time at the theater there , Duke Karl brought him to Braunschweig . After working in Mannheim, Munich and Pest , Neefe returned to Vienna in 1830 and was engaged by director Johann August Stöger († 1861) at the Josephstädter Theater .

In addition to his work as a theater painter, Neefe also created a number of landscapes and watercolors; the latter often served him as drafts for his monumental stage sets.

Hermann Josef Neefe died in Vienna on February 24, 1854 at the age of 64.

Works (selection)

painting

• Landscape with sunset . 1826
• Area at the snow mountains . 1827
• The Ilsenstein at the foot of the Brocken
• A gothic room
• Schiller's tomb

Stage sets

• La muette de Portici ( Daniel-François-Esprit Auber )
• The spendthrift ( Ferdinand Raimund )
• The constant alternating ( Franz Carl Weidmann )
• Lucia di Lammermoor ( Gaetano Donizetti )
• The ring of luck (Franz Carl Weidmann)

literature

• Adolf Bäuerle : From the art world. In: Adolf Bäuerle: Theater newspaper. No. 49, 1854.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Neefe, Hermann . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 20th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1869, pp. 120–123 ( digitized version ).