Johann Friedrich Matthäi (3 March 1777,

Meissen Meissen ( ), is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden and 75 km (46 mi) west of Bautzen on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, th ...

- 23 October 1845,

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

) was a German portrait and history painter.Entry
@ National Museums (Germany)

Life and work

He was the son of Johann Gottlob Matthäi (1753-1832), a

Meissen porcelain Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first Europe, European hard-paste porcelain. Early experiments were done in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger continued von Tschirnhaus's ...

manufacturer, who later became an architect and sculptor. He initially studied at the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German language, German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institutio ...

with

Giovanni Battista Casanova Giovanni Battista Casanova (; 2 November 1730 – 8 December 1795) was an Italian painter and printmaker of the Neoclassic period. He was a brother of Giacomo Casanova and Francesco Giuseppe Casanova and was born in Venice. He studied pa ...

. This was followed by studies at the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

in Vienna with

Heinrich Friedrich Füger Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...

. After study trips and stays in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

(1802–1804), and Rome (1805–1807), he became a teacher at the Dresden Academy and, in 1810, was named its director. In 1823, he was appointed Inspector (curator) for the

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister The (, ''Old Masters Gallery'') in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance painting, Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch Golden Age painting, Dutch and F ...

; becoming its director in 1834. He was one of the last exponents of pure

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

in Germany. He died in Vienna, while returning from a trip to Italy. In Dresden He was a longtime member of the Dresden

Freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

lodge, "Zum goldenen Apfel" (The Golden Apple). His students at the Academy included the Nazareners Carl Eggers and

Johannes Veit Johannes Veit, originally Jonas Veit (2 March 1790, Berlin - 18 January 1854, Rome) was a German history painter. After 1811, he lived and worked in Rome, where he was a member of the Nazarene movement.

References

External links

1777 births 1845 deaths 18th-century German painters 18th-century German male artists German portrait painters German history painters Academic staff of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts People from Meissen 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists {{Germany-painter-stub

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links