(b Berlin, 22 Aug 1710; d Kassel, 22 Oct 1781). German sculptor and stuccoist. He was first trained by his father, the sculptor Johann Samuel Nahl (1664–1727), who since 1704 had been court sculptor to Frederick I in Berlin. At the age of 18 Nahl set out as a journeyman, travelling via Sigmaringen and Berne to Strasbourg, where from 1728 he worked as an assistant to Robert Le Lorrain. In 1731 he went to Paris, where he spent two years studying ornament. In 1734 he spent a year in Rome, then travelled in Italy. In 1735 he moved to Schaffhausen, where he executed various stuccowork projects that cannot now be identified; he then returned to Strasbourg, where he set up as an independent sculptor and decorator. He worked first for the royal praetor Klinglin, and subsequently for Cardinal Armand-Gaston de Rohan-Soubise on the episcopal palace, now known as the Palais Rohan, which had been started in 1731. In 1736 Nahl was granted citizenship of Strasbourg and was married; one of his sons, Samuel Nahl (1748–1813), likewise became a sculptor, and another, Johann August Nahl der Jüngere, became a painter.

• Nahl, Johann August (der Altere) (1710-81)
  • Hesse-Kassel: (3) Frederick II, Landgrave of
  • collaboration
    • Frame, §VI, 4: Germany and Central Europe: Rococo
    • Knobelsdorff, Georg Wenceslaus von
  • house
    • Kassel, §1: History and urban development
  • patrons and collectors
    • Hesse-Kassel: (2) William VIII, Landgrave of
    • Hohenzollern: (7) Frederick II, King of Prussia
    • Potsdam, §2: Schloss Sanssouci
  • works
    • Berlin, §IV, 2: Schloss Charlottenburg
    • Germany, §V, 3: Interior decoration, c 1700–c 1790
    • Germany, §VI, 3(ii): Furniture, 1651–1769: Rococo
    • Hoppenhaupt: (1) Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt II
    • Hoppenhaupt: (2) Johann Christian Hoppenhaupt