Johann August Krafft (painter)

Johann August Krafft (born April 28, 1798 in Altona , † December 19, 1829 in Rome ) was a German painter and etcher who created watercolors, copperplate engravings and oil paintings with genre scenes and portraits.

Portrait of Jakob Wilder; 1819

Life

His parents were the businessman Johann Heinrich Krafft and Maria Catharina Feddersen. He first started his apprenticeship with a tobacco dealer, but then did his basic art training in Hamburg . Art lovers made it possible for him to study at the Academy in Copenhagen in 1816 , where he had joined Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg , but without entering his private school. In early 1819 he received both silver medals. After applying in vain for the small gold medal, he had to break off his studies and return to Altona. His picture of Marius in prison remained unfinished. The income from a few portraits and the support of friends enabled him to travel to Dresden in 1820, where he trained in history painting under Ferdinand Hartmann . He preferred to draw in the great outdoors. He moved to Munich for further training . In the local pub of the art association, he exhibited some history and genre paintings. In 1823 he moved on via Innsbruck, where he spent the autumn, to Vienna in November. The watercolors he created here were reproduced by engravings: Old Woman with a Fur Hat (engraving by L. Gruner ), The Daily Society in the Coffee House for the City of London and The Bagpiper (the first picture acquired by Artaria ). When he went to Rome in October 1826, he was already suffering from a breast disease. Here he made many drawings and some oil paintings, especially rural depictions from the area around the city. His etching scene from the Roman Carneval (Rome, 1827) was exhibited at the German exhibition in October 1828 and acquired by Bertel Thorvaldsen , of whose daughter he also made a portrait. He is buried at the Cestius pyramid .

He became particularly well-known with the portrait of the judge and landowner Jacob Wilder (1740–1827) from November 1819 in Landkirchen on Fehmarn (which was previously incorrectly attributed to J. Oldach ).

The portrait that Ludwig Gruner made of him in Vienna went to the artist portrait collection of the cabinet in Dresden.

literature

• Copenhagen Art Journal , 1832, No. 4–5, 13–19.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Krafft, August . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 13th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1865, p. 111 ( digitized version ).
• Andresen, Wessely: The German painter-radishers, peintres-graveurs, of the nineteenth century . 1866, p. 345 ( /books.google.com ).
• Hyacinth Holland :  Krafft, Johann August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 15 f.
• Carl V. Petersen: Italy i dansk painting art . 1932, Afb. 21 and 23.
• Johann August Krafft . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 21 : Knip – Kruger . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1927, p. 393-394 .
• Paul Ferdinand Schmidt : Biedermeier painting. Munich 1921.
• Haavard Rostrup: HW Bissen , I – II, 1945.
• Lilli Martius : Schleswig-Holstein painting in the 19th century, 1956.
• Knud Voss: Copenhagen - Hamburg - Altona. Artistic relationships 1750–1850. (Catalog for the exhibition of the Danish-German Academy, Hamburg, in the Altonaer Museum; Hamburg 1968).
• Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer : The painter and draftsman Johann August Krafft. In: Nordelbingen - Contributions to Art and Culture History Vol. 63, 1994, pp. 91–118.
• Johann August Krafft . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 9 : Jyde – Køtschau . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1895, p. 414 (Danish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

• rosekamp.dk (Danish)
• rosekamp.dk (Danish)
• zeno.org