Johann Wilhelm Hoffnas

Johann Wilhelm Hoffnas , often also Hofnas (born June 19, 1727 in Ahaus , Westphalia , † August 16, 1795 in Mannheim ) was a court painter from the Electoral Palatinate .

biography

His real name was Hoff zum Ahaus , but he called himself Hoffnas and was an apprentice to a glass painter. In 1748 he moved to Düsseldorf and left for Rome in 1753 , where he became a student of Anton Raphael Mengs and Lambert Krahe .

After returning to Germany, Hoffnas worked for the Elector Palatinate Court and Elector Karl Theodor from 1760 . In 1773 he appointed him as a teacher at the Mannheim drawing academy and in 1777 appointed him court painter. Johann Wilhelm Hoffnas was one of the most talented portrait painters of his era in the Electoral Palatinate area. He died in Mannheim in 1795.

His son Lorenz Hoffnas (1772–1837) worked as a miniature painter. The sons of Peter Hoffna (1780–1819) and Ferdinand Wilhelm Hoffna (1769–1844) were Bavarian officers and were also active as artists. Peter Hoffnas painted miniatures, Ferdinand Wilhelm Hoffnas was ennobled, rose to general and made battle drawings. One of the latter's daughter-in-law was the famous poet Franziska von Hoffnaaß (1831-1892).

literature

Viktor Carl: Lexicon of Palatinate personalities. Hennig Verlag, Edenkoben 2004, ISBN 3-9804668-5-X , p. 376. (with portrait)
Samuel Baur : General historical concise dictionary of all strange people who died in the last decade of the eighteenth century. Volume 5 of: New historical hand lexicon. Ulm 1803, p. 495. (digital scan)
Johann Rudolf Fuessli: General Artist Lexicon . Second part, third section, Zurich 1808, p. 545 u. 555. (digital scan)

Web links

Commons : Johann Wilhelm Hoffnas - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Website of the Bavarian National Museum for a portrait of Johann Wilhelm Hoffnas

Gallery of pictures of the painter

Unmarked portrait, Mannheim, 1772 (probably Stephan von Stengel , 1750–1822)
Auxiliary Bishop Stephan Alexander Würdtwein von Worms
Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal , Archbishop of Mainz
Ignaz Fränzl , Mannheim composer
Ferdinand Bonaventura II of Harrach and family
Josepha Seyffert , lover of Elector Karl Theodor, ancestor of the noble family von Bretzenheim
Unmarked portrait of a Mannheim clergyman. Either the meteorologist Johann Jakob Hemmer (1733–1790) or the astronomer Christian Mayer (1719–1783)

Individual evidence

^ Maren Gröning: The German and Swiss drawings of the late 18th century. (= Descriptive catalog of the drawings in the Albertina Graphic Collection. Volume 9). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98739-X , p. 86. (Digitalscan)
^ Leo R. Schidlof: The miniature in Europe in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Volume 1, 1964, p. 365. (Detail scan of Peter Hoffna's)
↑ Helmut Tenner: Mannheim art collector and art dealer until the middle of the nineteenth century. Buch- und Kunstantiquariat H. Tenner, 1966, p. 230 (detail scan of Ferdinand Wilhelm Hoffnas)
↑ Website for the painting

personal data
SURNAME	Hoffnas, Johann Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hofnas, Johann Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German painter
DATE OF BIRTH	June 19, 1727
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ahaus
DATE OF DEATH	August 16, 1795
Place of death	Mannheim

[1] Maren Gröning: The German and Swiss drawings of the late 18th century. (= Descriptive catalog of the drawings in the Albertina Graphic Collection. Volume 9). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-205-98739-X , p. 86. (Digitalscan)

[2] Leo R. Schidlof: The miniature in Europe in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Volume 1, 1964, p. 365. (Detail scan of Peter Hoffna's)

[3] Helmut Tenner: Mannheim art collector and art dealer until the middle of the nineteenth century. Buch- und Kunstantiquariat H. Tenner, 1966, p. 230 (detail scan of Ferdinand Wilhelm Hoffnas)

[4] Website for the painting