Portrait des August Grahl von Vincenzo Camuccini

August Grahl (26 May 1791, Göhren-Lebbin - 13 June 1868,

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

) was a German portrait painter and

miniaturist A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

Life

He was the son of the Court Jeweler to the Hohenzollerns. From 1811 to 1813, he studied at the

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universit ...

. He quit school to join the Black Hussars of Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow and fight in the

War of Liberation Wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) to establish separat ...

. He retired with a commission.Biography
@ Grahl Family Website, translated from "A German Lexicon of Artists". His first success came in 1816, with a portrait of King

Friedrich Wilhelm III Frederick William III (german: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, w ...

. In 1817/18, he took a trip to Italy, visiting Rome, Florence, Venice and Bologna. Following his wife's death in 1821, after only two years of marriage, he began travelling more extensively, ending in Rome where he lived until 1830 at the Palazzo Caffarelli. It was there that he met his second wife, the daughter of a wealthy banker from

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

. He spent 1831 in England, where he painted a portrait of

Queen Adelaide , house = Saxe-Meiningen , father = Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen , mother = Princess Louise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Meiningen, Saxe-Meiningen, Holy ...

that was later made into an engraving by

Samuel William Reynolds Samuel William Reynolds (4 July 1773 – 13 August 1835) was a mezzotint engraver, landscape painter and landscape gardener. Reynolds was a popular engraver in both Britain and France and there are over 400 examples of his work in the Nation ...

. In 1832, he returned to Germany to get married and moved to Dresden in 1835, remaining there except for a brief period from 1853 to 1855, when he returned to Rome to attend to his son-in-law, the painter

Alfred Rethel Alfred Rethel (May 15, 1816December 1, 1859) was a German history painting, history painter. Early life and education Rethel was born in Aachen in 1816. He showed an interest in art in his early life, and at the age of thirteen he executed a draw ...

, who was suffering from a severe episode of depression. He is probably best known for his portrait of Hans Christian Andersen, which is on display at the Andersen Museum in

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

. Another familiar work is his portrait of Gabriele von Bülow,

Wilhelm von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (, also , ; ; 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named afte ...

's daughter. He was also a significant art collector, possessing a large selection of Italian paintings and lithographs. Virtually all of his miniatures are still privately owned. His granddaughter was artist,

Else Sohn-Rethel Elisabeth "Else" Johanna Martha Maria Sohn-Rethel (14 March 1853 – 22 January 1933) was a German painter and singer, active in the mid and late 19th-century. Biography Elisabeth Johanna Martha Maria Rethel was born 14 March 1853 in Rome, I ...

References

External links

ArtNet: More paintings by Grahl
including his portrait of Vittoria Caldoni. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grahl, August 1791 births 1868 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters Portrait painters People from Mecklenburgische Seenplatte (district) Berlin University of the Arts alumni

Life

References

Further reading

External links