Johann Peter Krafft (15 September 1780,

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...

- 28 October 1856,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

) was a German-born Austrian painter who specialized in portraits, historical works and

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

scenes.

Biography

His father was an enamel painter who originally came from a family of wine merchants in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

. His brother, Joseph Krafft (1786-1828) also became a painter of

portrait miniatures 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 el ...

. By the age of ten, he was already attending a drawing school. In 1799, he and sister were sent to live with an aunt in Vienna. He immediately enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied history painting with Heinrich Friedrich Füger. In 1802, he travelled to Paris with Veit Hanns Schnorr von Carolsfeld to continue his studies. There, he made the acquaintance of

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

and

François Gérard François Pascal Simon Gérard (, 4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837), titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a prominent French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was It ...

, who had a major influence on his style. He returned to Vienna in 1805, where he established himself as a portrait painter. From 1808 to 1809, he went on a study trip through Italy. He became a member of the Academy in 1813. Two years later, he married Juliana Preisinger. Three of their children became painters: Marie (1812–1885), Albrecht (1816–1847) and Julie (1821–1903). He was appointed a Professor at the Academy in 1823. In 1828, he was named Director of the Galerie Belvedere, a position he held until his death. He became an Academic Counselor in 1835. Over the next few years, he travelled to Munich, Dresden and Venice, where he purchased 80 works for the museum. He was also employed as an expert on the preservation of monuments, working at

Karlstein Castle Karlstein may refer to places in: ; Germany: * Karlstein am Main, a municipality in Landkreis Aschaffenburg, Bavaria * part of Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria ** a rock with a ruin there * Karlstein bei Hornberg, a rock in Hornberg, Baden-Württemberg * ...

, Schönbrunn Palace and the Jesuit Church. He was buried at the

Vienna Central Cemetery The Vienna Central Cemetery (german: Wiener Zentralfriedhof) is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its ...

. In 1885, a street in the Leopoldstadt district was named after him.

Selected paintings

File:Princesse de Salerne.jpeg,

Archduchess Clementina of Austria * it, Maria Clementina Francesca Giuseppa , title = Princess of Salerno , image = Archduchess Clementina of Austria, Princess of Salerno in her final years.jpg , caption = Photograph of Archduchess Clementina, c. 1870s , sp ...

File:Portrait of Napoléon II attributed to Johann Peter Krafft.png, Portrait of

Napoléon II , house = Bonaparte , father = Napoleon I, Emperor of the French , mother = Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma , birth_date = , birth_place = Tuileries Palace, Paris, French Empire ...

, 1818, private collection File:Batalla Leipzig Berlín 02.JPG, The

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig (french: Bataille de Leipsick; german: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, ); sv, Slaget vid Leipzig), also known as the Battle of the Nations (french: Bataille des Nations; russian: Битва народов, translit=Bitva ...

(detail) File:Krafft, Peter - Zrínyi's Charge from the Fortress of Szigetvár - Google Art Project.jpg, The

Siege of Szigetvár The siege of Szigetvár or the Battle of Szigeth (pronunciation: �siɡɛtvaːr hu, Szigetvár ostroma, hr, Bitka kod Sigeta; Sigetska bitka, tr, Zigetvar Kuşatması) was a siege of the fortress of Szigetvár, Kingdom of Hungary, that block ...

File:Johann Peter Krafft - Equestrian Portrait of Franz I - WGA12272.jpg, Equestrian portrait of

Franz I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to: * Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407) * Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450 * Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547 * Francis I, Duke of Saxe-La ...

References

Constantin von Wurzbach Constantin Wurzbach Ritter von Tannenberg (11 April 1818 – 17 August 1893) was an Austrian biographer, lexicographer and author. Biography He was born in Laibach, Carniola (present-day Ljubljana, Slovenia).He later went on to complete a cou ...

: Krafft, Peter. In: ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich''. 13. Theil. Kaiserlich-königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1865, pp. 106–11
(Online)
* *

External links

ArtNet: More works by Krafft.
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krafft, Johann Peter 1780 births 1856 deaths Austrian male painters 19th-century Austrian painters 19th-century Austrian male artists Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni History painters Austrian portrait painters People from Hanau German emigrants to Austria-Hungary

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links