Georg Hermann Nicolai (10 January 1812 – 10 July 1881) was a German architect and educator, Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts on the Brühl Terrace in

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 larg ...

from 1850 until his death.

Life

Nicolai was born at

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies forces first ...

, in the

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxon ...

. He studied architecture at the

Academy with Bernhard Schreiber under Joseph Thürmer and later in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

under Friedrich von Gärtner. Travels to Italy included stints in 1834-5 and 1839-40. He served as ''Hofbaumeister'' in Coburg from 1841–45 and established a private practice in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

from 1845-48. In mid-summer 1850 he succeeded

Gottfried Semper Gottfried Semper (; 29 November 1803 – 15 May 1879) was a German architect, art critic, and professor of architecture who designed and built the Semper Opera House in Dresden between 1838 and 1841. In 1849 he took part in the May Uprising in ...

as Professor of the ''Bauatelier'' of the

Academy of Fine Arts many months after Semper had participated in building a barricade in the May Uprising of the previous year. Nicolai brought a fine sensibility to the reinterpretation of Quattrocento-style Neorenaissance architecture in

in his years at the Academy, and was an extremely popular teacher. Many of his students went on to distinguished careers in

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

and beyond. He died at died Bodenbach (Elbe), aged 69. Upon his death, his former pupil

Constantin Lipsius Johannes Wilhelm Constantin Lipsius (20 October 1832 – 11 April 1894) was a German architect and architectural theorist, best known for his controversial design of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Exhibition Building (1883–1894) on the Brüh ...

(1832-1894) was named his replacement.

Principal Works

*Seebach Residence (1839) *Villa Struve (1851-2) *Villa Meyer (1867–69) *Reconstruction of Prince George's Palace on the Zinzendorfstrasse (1855-7) *Villa Seiler (1867-8) All of these were destroyed during the Allied bombing of Dresden in World War II.

References

English

*Berry, J. Duncan. The Legacy of Gottfried Semper: Studies in ''Späthistorismus''
Ph. D. Diss
, Brown University, 1989): .

German

*Anon., ''Geschichte des akademischen Architekten-Club Akanthus. Gedenk-Schrift zum 30jährigen Stiftungsfeste 1894'' (Dresden 1894). *Anon., "Herrmann Georg (sic) Nicolai," '' Dresdner Anzeiger'' CLI/229 (August 17, 1881): . *Helas, Volker. ''Sempers Dresden. Die Bauten und die Schüler'' (Dresden, 2003): , 47 n9. *Lier, H. A. in ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' 52 (1906): . *Lipsius, Constantin. "Georg Hermann Nicolai," ''Deutsche Bauzeitung'' 16 (1882): , 314-7. *Milde, Kurt. ''Neorenaissance in der deutschen Architektur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Grundlagen, Wesen und Gültigkeit'' (Dresden 1981): , 225, 260. *Neiss, A. (ed.), ''Architektonischen Entwürfe aus dem Atelier des Prof. Hermann Nicolai in Dresden''. 2nd ed. (Berlin, n. d., a. 1883. *Nicolai, Georg Hermann. ''Das Ornament der italienischen Kunst des 15. Jahrhunderts. Eine Sammlung der hervorragendsten Motive'' (Dresden, 1882). Engl. trans. as: ''The Ornament of Italian Art of the XV. Century. A Collection of Superior Specimens'' (New York, 1914). {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolai, Georg Hermann 1812 births 1881 deaths People from Torgau People from the Kingdom of Saxony 19th-century German architects Dresden Academy of Fine Arts faculty