Johann Nepomuk Hoechle

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The crossing over the Vosges , around 1820
Rudolf von Habsburg and the priest
Scene from a battle of the Turks
Beethoven's study , 1827

Johann Nepomuk Hoechle (born September 16, 1790 in Munich , † December 12, 1835 in Vienna ) was an Austrian genre painter and lithographer .

life and work

Johann Nepomuk was apprenticed to the Munich painter, engraver and etcher Ferdinand Kobell by his father, Johann Baptist, while still a child . However, he died in 1799, and the following year the ten-year-old boy moved to Vienna with his father. From 1804 to 1808 studied Hoechle at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts , the landscape subject , his teachers were Heinrich Füger and Michael Wutky . Hoechle probably owed his later reputation as a "battalion painter" , apart from the development of the great events of the time, to the influence of Ignace Duvivier, who had been a member of the Vienna Academy since 1801 and probably also taught Hoechle.

On the eve of the Battle of Aspern , on May 20, 1809, Hoechle drew a sketch of the beginning battle on a hill near Heiligenstadt , which is now owned by the Albertina . He was caught and arrested by French soldiers. He was supposed to be shot as a spy, but was able to save himself through presence of mind.

After further studies in military painting, Hoechle took part in the great world historical events of 1814 and 1815 in the wake of the Austrian Emperor Franz I , making numerous sketches based on nature. These sketches were then incorporated into the large historical event pictures that he subsequently created in his studio , such as the richly figured and colorful painting “ The Passage over the Vosges ”, which is now in the Army History Museum in Vienna.

In 1819 Hoechle came to Italy (including Rome and Naples ) in the wake of the emperor , and also in 1820 to major military maneuvers in Hungary . Numerous pen and ink drawings and watercolor studies date from this period and are also kept in the Albertina today. The Austrian National Library , the Vienna Museum and the Academy of Fine Arts also have several works by Hoechle.

Around 1820 Hoechle made a drawing of Ludwig van Beethoven and, immediately after Beethoven's death, a detailed drawing of his composing room in the Schwarzspanierhaus.

In 1833 Johann Nepomuk succeeded his father as court and chamber painter , but died two years later.

The transition over the Vosges

The Battle of Nations near Leipzig (October 16-19, 1813), one of the decisive battles of the Wars of Liberation , ended in a devastating defeat for Napoleon Bonaparte . He and his troops were pushed back across the Rhine , his allied opponents soon found themselves on French soil, while the Vosges were crossed. The train, which Hoechle captured in his painting, consists of more than 1000 people and moves on July 2, 1814 through the valley of a mountainous landscape in the Vosges. On a white horse, Emperor Franz I of Austria rides in a light blue tunic at the head of the General Staff and accompanied by Crown Prince Ferdinand through a forest clearing. Prince Metternich , in a green uniform on a piebald horse, shows them the way. A special feature of the colorful painting are several Asian soldiers who belonged to the Russian army in the foreground . The painting is the largest and at the same time the most important battle picture from the oeuvre of Johann Nepomuk Hoechle.

Works (excerpt)

  • The transition over the Vosges . Oil on canvas, around 1820, 230 × 315 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna.
  • Rudolf von Habsburg and the priest. Oil on canvas, Austrian Gallery Belvedere .
  • Scene from a Turkish battle . Oil on canvas, 83.5 × 66 cm, Palais Kinsky .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Thieme (ed.), General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present. Leipzig, 1924, XVII, 179 f.
  2. ^ Claudia Reichl-Ham: The year 1809 as reflected in the objects of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, in: Viribus Unitis. Annual report 2009 of the Army History Museum, Vienna 2010, p. 88 f.

Web links

Commons : Johann Nepomuk Hoechle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Hoechle, Johann Nepomuk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian genre painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1790
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1835
Place of death Vienna