|
Hess, Hieronymus
(b Basle, 1799; d Basle, 8 June 1850). Swiss painter and draughtsman. He first trained in Basle with Maximilian Neustück (1756–1834). In 1819 he went to Naples and then Rome, where he lived until 1823. While in Rome he met Joseph Anton Koch and the Nazarene artists, whose work was to have a lasting influence on his religious and historical paintings (e.g. Murder of King Albert, 1829; Basle, Kstmus.). While studying in Nuremberg on the recommendation of Bertel Thorvaldsen, he became familiar with popular contemporary drawings. As a talented draughtsman, and to a lesser extent as a successful colourist, he subsequently established his reputation as one of the most important social caricaturists in Switzerland. In his caricatures, which are full of coarse humour, he attached particular value to the subject’s physiognomy, which he used to reveal individual character (e.g. Prof. Dr Med. Johann Jakob Stöckelberger und Frau Ochs geb. Bauler, auf der Mittleren Brücke zu Basel, 1826; priv. col., see Pfister-Burkhatter (1964–6), p. 152). His fame, however, rests primarily on his copies after the fragments (Basle, Kstmus.) of Hans Holbein the younger’s lost frescoes (1521–2) in the Rathaus: Death of Charondas, Blinding of Zaleukos and Curius Dentatus (all 1817; Basle, Kstmus.). In spite of their craftsmanlike quality, these drawings are important to research and represent historical documents of great interest.
|
|
There are more than 45,000 articles in The Grove Dictionary of Art.
To access the rest of this article, including the bibliography, subscribe to
www.groveart.com.
To find out more about this subject, click on a related article below and
subscribe to www.groveart.com
|
