Johann Gottfried Eiffe

Johann Gottfried Eiffe (born August 13, 1779 or 1773 in Hamburg , † August 13, 1818 in La Victoire in Haiti ) was a German painter .

Life

Little is known about Eiffe's parents and youth. Together with his friend Philipp Otto Runge , he took drawing lessons from Gerdt Hardorff in Hamburg from 1798 and received artistic training from Jens Juel in Copenhagen from 1799 . Since they were dissatisfied with the academic training offered, Eiffe and Runge founded a "private academy" together with other compatriots, which was supposed to supplement the official curriculum. After visiting Caspar David Friedrich in Greifswald , Eiffe and Runge moved to Dresden in May 1801 . This caused tensions between the two artists. Runge, who was mistakenly ascribed some of Eiffe's drawings, accused his friend of lacking artistic ambition. Eiffe, who benefited from the friendship with Runge and from his contacts, did not make a lasting breakthrough here.

Due to a lack of orders, Eiffe left Dresden in 1807 and returned to Hamburg. Here he gave painting and drawing lessons and did commissioned work, but his economic situation remained precarious. When Henri Christophe , ruler in Northern Haiti , promised European painters a lot of money for work at his court, Eiffe went to Haiti in 1816. Here he created several paintings and decorated rooms of the imperial palace. After Eiffe's intentions to return to Germany became known, he suffered from repression. He died in distress and misery in Haiti in August 1818.

Works

One of Eiffe's well-known works is a copy of Runge's self-portrait in a blue skirt made in 1805 . After Runge's death in late 1810, Eiffe created several versions of the painting, which he sold to friends. The small oil painting of the Crucifixion , created in 1814 for the Sankt Katharinenkirche , belongs to the commissioned work . Even if he was unable to achieve any economic success during his lifetime, the Hamburg Artist's Lexicon of 1854 posthumously confirmed that he had a “lively feeling for the beautiful in art”.

Exhibitions (selection)

• 2019: Hamburg School - The 19th Century Rediscovered (April 12 to July 14), Hamburger Kunsthalle

literature

• Susanne Geese: Eiffe, Johann Gottfried . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 108-109 .
• Brief description of life, in: Philipp Otto Runge , Johann Daniel Runge (Hrsg.): Nachlassene Schriften . Friedrich Perthes . Hamburg 1840–41, volumes 1–2, footnote p. 451, ( digitized version )

Web links

Commons : Johann Gottfried Eiffe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files