(b Weissenhorn, bapt 8 Nov 1719; d Linz an der Donau, 30 Jan 1771). German painter. He was first taught by his father, the painter Johann Jakob Kuen (1681–1759), and his uncle, Johann Baptist Kuen (b 1686). He was apprenticed to Johann Georg Bergmüller in Augsburg from c. 1737. His first documented work was the painting in 1743 of the interior of the monastery church of St Michael zu den Wengen in Ulm (destr. 1944, see M. Ernst: ‘Wengenkloster und Wengenkirche in Ulm’, Ulm, Oberschwaben, xxx (1937), figs xiv–xv). Bergmüller’s influence can be clearly seen in this and in the next large commission in 1744, fresco paintings for the monastery library at Wiblingen. In 1745 Kuen travelled to Italy for further study. He spent most of his time in Venice with Giambattista Tiepolo and owned several drawings by him. In the many interiors of churches and castles that Kuen painted in the years after 1748, such as the frescoes at Attenhofen near Ulm (1752) and St Ulrich, Eresing, near Landsberg (1756), as well as in his individual paintings, Tiepolo’s influence remains clearly perceptible: he often adopted single figures or whole groups of figures from Tiepolo. While he began by using powerful, intensely luminous colours and marked contrasts, Kuen’s later painting (e.g. the frescoes at St Martin, Erbach (1766–9), and at St Felix, Jettingen-Scheppach (1769–70)) is distinguished by brighter, softer colouring and the use of a large palette of subtle colours: his compositions and figure construction also appear more assured. His painting, which was imbued with a certain popular, narrative verve, won recognition in the form of an invitation received shortly before his death to take up the appointment of director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Johann Baptist Enderle and Conrad Huber (1752–1830) were among his pupils.

• Kuen, Franz Martin
  • Enderle, Johann Baptist