 |
Anton GraffGerman artist
Date of Birth: 18.11.1736
Country:  Germany |
Content:
Biography of Anton Graff
Anton Graff was a German-Swiss artist and an outstanding portraitist of his time. He was born into a craftsman's family in Winterthur and received his art education both in his hometown and in Augsburg. Graff specialized in portrait painting and in 1766, he was appointed as a court artist and teacher at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, a position he held until his death. Despite more lucrative offers from Berlin, he chose to stay in Dresden.
Portraits of Great Personalities
Graff's portraits depicted the prominent figures of his time, including Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Schiller, Christian Felix Weiße, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Heinrich von Kleist, and Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki. His most notable work is considered to be the portrait of the Prussian King, Frederick the Great. In 1796, upon the request of Empress Catherine II, Graff copied a series of paintings from the Dresden Gallery for the Hermitage Museum.
Shift to Landscape Painting
In the later period of his career, Graff turned to landscape painting. His works had a significant influence on the artistic styles of painters such as Philipp Otto Runge and Caspar David Friedrich.
Legacy
The name of Anton Graff is honored through the building of a technical vocational school in his hometown of Winterthur.
