Johann Adam Klein

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alternative description
Johann Adam Klein (image detail)
The mountain castle Greifenstein on the Danube , 1812

Johann Adam Klein (* 24. November 1792 in Nuremberg , † 21st May 1875 in Munich ) was a German painter and engraver of the Biedermeier .

life and work

At the age of eight, Klein received drawing lessons from the painter Georg Christoph von Bemmel. In 1802 he attended the Nuremberg drawing school under Gustav Philipp Zwinger , in 1805 he became an apprentice in the studio of the engraver Ambrosius Gabler, where he learned the technique of etching and etching . Gabler recognized Klein's talent for drawing animals and sent him to cattle markets to study. On the recommendation of the Nuremberg art dealer Johann Friedrich Frauenholz , Klein went to Vienna in 1811, where he continued his education at the academy . Inspired by the Napoleonic Wars , he drew and etched the soldiers of the warring parties in their uniforms and with their baggage, their horses and wagons in great detail.

Back in Nuremberg in 1815, he made a trip to the Rhine on behalf of Count Erwin von Schönborn . In 1816 he went to Vienna again with his friend, draftsman and etcher Johann Christoph Erhard , where he was supported by Prince Metternich , who sent him to Hungary to study horses. Further trips provided him with material for his drawings: In September 1818 he hiked through the Styrian Mountains and to the Traunsee and Hallstätter See, in 1819 he made his way to Italy via Switzerland and made friends with the German artists in Rome. In 1823 he married Karoline Wüst and stayed in Nuremberg until her death in 1837; after her death he moved to Munich and married the widow of the copper engraver Wolf in 1839. He died in Munich on May 21, 1875 at the age of 83.

Klein was a typical Biedermeier painter. From an artistic point of view, his prints with over 2,000 sheets as well as his study sheets and watercolors are to be valued higher than his oil paintings, which were mainly created from 1816 onwards. Both have echoes of his models, the animal painters Wilhelm von Kobell and Johann Elias Ridinger as well as Dutch painters of the 17th century such as Karel Dujardin , Philips Wouwerman and Adriaen van de Velde . In his genre painting , depictions of animals and especially horses predominate . When depicting them, Klein attached particular importance to the elaboration of the characteristics of the different races. His prints were published by Frauenholz and the Zehschen Buchhandlung in Nuremberg and other graphic publishers.

Works (excerpt)

Honors

JA Klein: Portrait of JC Erhard on a bench in Park Aigen near Salzburg, 1822

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Adam Klein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Klein, Johann Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and engraver of the Biedermeier era
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1792
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1875
Place of death Munich