Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: What was Hans Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff's most famous painting?
Knobelsdorff was involved in the construction of St. Hedwig's Cathedral, but it is uncertain to what extent. Frederick II presented the Catholic community with complete building plans, which were probably primarily his ideas which were then realized by Knobelsdorff. The opera house, by contrast, was completely designed by Knobelsdorff and is considered to be one of his most important works. For the frontage of the externally modestly structured building the architect followed the model of two views from Colin Campbell's "Vitruvius Britannicus", one of the most important collections of architectonic engravings, which included works of English Palladian architecture. For the interior he designed a series of three prominent rooms with different functions, which were at different levels, and were decorated differently: the Apollo Hall, the spectator viewing area, and the stage. By technical means they could be turned into one large room for major festivities. Knobelsdorff described the technical features in a Berlin newspaper, proudly commenting that "this theater is one of the longest and widest in the world". In 1843 the building burned down to the foundation. In World War II it suffered several times from bombing. Each time the rebuilding followed Knobelsdorff's intentions, but there were also clear modifications of both the facing and the interior. Soon after they were completed, the opera house and St. Hedwig's Cathedral were featured in textbooks and manuals on architecture.
The French Church is one of Knobelsdorff's late works. For the Hugenot congregation he designed a small round building which recalled the Pantheon in Rome. Construction was carried out by Jan Boumann, whose talents as an architect were not esteemed by Knobelsdorff, but who was often preferred for commissions in later years. The church has an oval ground plan of about 15:20meters and a free-floating dome which 80years later Karl Friedrich Schinkel declared to be very daring as to its statics. The modest interior gives the impression of an amphitheater because of the encircling wooden balcony. As specified by the French Reformed Church service there were no embellishments—no cross, no baptismal font, no figural decoration. Frederick II handed over the completed church to the Potsdam congregation on September 16, 1753, the day of Knobelsdorff's death.
Monbijou Palace 1739 The Knobelsdorf wing of Charlottenburg Palace Potsdam City Palace with Fortuna portico and obelisk The reconstructed Fortuna portico
Heinrich Ludwig Manger mentions Knobelsdorff in his "Baugeschichte von Potsdam" (1789/90). After listing 30 pieces of architecture which were realized in Potsdam alone according to his plans, he also writes about Knobelsdorff as a painter: "Although it does not really belong in a history of architecture.—he produced many paintings, all of them directly from nature. He paid attention to every detail which he thought could be of possible future use, and sketched them in his notebook, which he kept in a particular place of his clothing. These drawings are free and easy and dashed off in his own masterly way. [...] The same can also be said of his landscape paintings, because everything in them was painted from nature with a wonderful blending of colors, without being hard or too colorful" (translation).
The structural modifications to these three palaces are part of the extensive program that Knobelsdorff tackled on behalf of Frederick II right after he acceded to the throne, or a few years thereafter.
Built following plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff it arose as a representation of the revived interest in garden architecture. The grotto ought to have been a component of the numerous fountains of the park, which did not function at that time, owing to a lack of technical knowledge.
Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, the son of Silesian landed gentry, was born on February 17, 1699 on the estate of Kuckädel (now Polish Kukadlo) near Crossen (now the Polish city Krosno Odrzańskie) on the Oder River. After the early death of his father he was raised by his godfather, the chief senior forester Georg von Knobelsdorff. In keeping with family tradition he began his professional career in the Prussian army. Already at 16years of age he participated in a campaign against King Charles XII of Sweden, and in 1715 in the siege of Stralsund.
Knobelsdorff died in Berlin. His grave is preserved in the Protestant Friedhof I der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde (Cemetery No. I of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church and New Church) in Berlin-Kreuzberg, south of Hallesches Tor.
Knobelsdorff acquired the expertise needed for his new profession again primarily in self-study, after a brief period of training under the architects Kemmeter and von Wangenheim. This breed of "gentlemen architects" was not unusual in the 16th and 17th centuries, and they were esteemed both socially and because of their specialized competence. They trained themselves by studying actual buildings on extensive travels as well as collections of engravings showing views of classical and contemporary buildings. Knobelsdorff's ideal models, the Englishmen Inigo Jones (1573–1652) and William Kent (1684–1748) as well as the Frenchman Claude Perrault (1613–1688), likewise grew into their professions in a roundabout way and were no longer young men when they turned to architecture.
The Obelisk entrance (German "Obeliskportal") constitutes the eastern limit of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, Germany. Following plans by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, Frederick the Great ordered in 1747 that this exit from the park be built.
Knobelsdorff gained the attention of King Frederick William I of Prussia (the "Soldier-King"), who had him join the entourage of his son, crown prince Frederick, later King Frederick II (Frederick the Great). After his failed attempt to flee Prussia and subsequent imprisonment in Küstrin, (now Polish Kostrzyn nad Odrą), Frederick had just been granted somewhat more freedom of movement by his strict father. Apparently, the king hoped that Knobelsdorff, as a sensible and artistically talented nobleman, would have a moderating influence on his son. (The sources vary as to what prompted the first meeting between Knobelsdorff and Frederick, but they all date the event as being in 1732.)
Knobelsdorff was influenced as an architect by French Baroque Classicism and by Palladian architecture. With his interior design and the backing of the king, he created the basis for the Frederician Rococo style at Rheinsberg, which was the residence of the crown prince and later monarch.
Hans Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (17 February 1699 – 16 September 1753) was a painter and architect in Prussia.
Karl Begas the younger created a statue of Knobelsdorff in 1886. This originally stood in the entrance hall of the Altes Museum (in Berlin) and is now in a depot of the state museum.
His interest in architecture developed in a roundabout way, and came from representing buildings in his pictures. Later, the pictorial aspect of his architectural sketches was often noted and met with varying reactions. Heinrich Ludwig Manger, as an architect more a technician than an artist, wrote with a critical undertone in 1789 in his Baugeschichte von Potsdam, that Knobelsdorff designed his buildings "merely in a perspective and picturesque way", but praised his paintings. Frederick the Great, in contrast, commented positively on the architect's "picturesque style" (gout pittoresque). There is also no evidence that the informal style of his drawings ever posed a serious impediment to the execution of his buildings.
in the German National Library catalogue at archINFORM
In 1736 the crown prince gave Knobelsdorff an opportunity to go on a study tour to Italy, which lasted until spring 1737. His stops included Rome, Naples and vicinity, Florence and Venice. His recorded his impressions in a travel sketchbook which contains almost one hundred pencil drawings, but only of part of his trip since on the return stretch he broke his arm in a traffic accident between Rome and Florence. He was unable to carry out a secret mission which involved engaging Italian opera singers to come to Rheinsburg since the available funds were inadequate. Knobelsdorff wrote to the crown prince that "The castrati here cannot be tempted to leave [...] regular employment, especially for those from the poorer classes, is the reason why they prefer 100 Rthlr (Reichstaler) in Rome to thousands abroad.[1] In autumn 1740, shortly after Frederick assumed the throne, Knobelsdorff was sent on another study tour. In Paris only the work of the architect Perrault impressed him—the frontage of the Louvre and the garden side of the castle in Versailles. As to paintings, he listed those of Watteau, Poussin, Chardin and others. On the return trip via Flanders he saw paintings by van Dyck and Rubens.
While still a soldier he developed his artistic talents in self-study. After leaving military service he arranged to be trained in various painting techniques by the Prussian court painter Antoine Pesne, with whom he shared a lifelong friendship. Knobelsdorff also acquired additional expertise in geometry and anatomy. He saw his professional future in painting, and his pictures and drawings were always highly appreciated, even after the focus of his activities turned elsewhere.
Beginning of 1746 Knobelsdorff purchased at a good price extensive grounds on the verge of the Tiergarten at an auction. It was situated between the victory column and the Spree River, about where today Bellevue Palace is located. The property included a mulberry plantation, meadows and farmland, vegetable beds and two dairys. Knobelsdorff had a new main building erected, externally a plain garden house. The wall and ceiling paintings in several rooms were considered to be a present from Antoine Pesne to his student and friend. The building was demolished in 1938. A number of biographers were of the opinion that Knobelsdorff used his property in the Tiergarten only to spend the idyllic summer months there together with his family each year. But the fact is that this land was intensively cultivated as both a fruit and a vegetable garden and turned out to be a useful investment. Knobelsdorff himself read books about the care of fruit trees and the cultivation of vegetables. One of them, (Ecole du Jardin potageur) contained a taxonomy of various kinds of vegetables, organized according to their curative powers. This gave rise to the suspicion that Knobelsdorff hoped for some relief from his chronic health problems from the plants in his garden.
Knobelsdorff was the head custodian of royal buildings and head of a privy council on financial matters. In 1746 he was fired by the king, and Johann Boumann finished all his projects, including Sanssouci.
Mosigkau Castle in the west of Dessau is one of the few Rococo palaces in Central Germany, resembling Sanssouci at Potsdam, which had been designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff. It was built between 1752 and 1757 for Anna Wilhelmine of Anhalt-Dessau, the daughter of Prince Leopold I. The ensemble includes an orangery and an art collection of Flemish Baroque painting, stemming from Duke John George's II union with the House of Orange-Nassau, that features works by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.
Knobelsdorff was an enthusiastic collector of art, a fact unknown until the recent discovery of old inventory lists.[3] He bequeathed to his friend, Lieutenant Colonel von Keith, an extensive collection of paintings and engravings virtually unmatched in 18th century Berlin. The trustees of his estate counted and appraised 368 paintings valued at ca. 5400 Reichstaler and over 100 engravings worth 400 Reichstaler. It is not clear how Knobelsdorff could have purchased such a considerable collection. There was no regular art market at that time in Berlin; at most, there were individual sales or legacy auctions which sometimes also included works of art. Probably contacts with Amsterdam and Rotterdam, centers of a thriving Dutch art market, were of use. The focus of his art collection was on landscape painting, especially Dutch paintings from the second half of the 17th century. Portraits were another important part of the collection, and there were also some scenes of battles, reflecting the taste of the times. Contemporary painters were hardly represented, and there were 37 specimens of Knobelsdorff's own work. Soon after his death the collection was dispersed and sold.
The Baroque palace was constructed on the site of an earlier fortification from 1662 to 1669 under Prince-Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, and was rebuilt from 1744 to 1752 by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff under Friedrich II, who performed additional interior decoration. It stood as one of the most important examples of Frederician Rococo.
The City Palace was originally erected in 1666 under the order of Elector Frederick William. At the time the spot was part of a castle grounds. The Old City Hall was developed between 1753–1755 under the direction of architects Jan Bouman and Carl Ludwig Hildebrant. The marble obelisk in front of the church was added in 1753, following a design by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, in order to emphasize the Roman character of the square. The most famous building in the square, St. Nicholas' Church, was erected from 1830–1837 as a centrally-planned building after classical-style designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
Frederician Rococo is a form of rococo, which developed in Prussia during the reign of Frederick the Great and combined influences from France, Germany (especially Saxony) and the Netherlands. Its most famous adherent was the architect Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff. Furthermore, the painter Antoine Pesne and even King Frederick himself influenced Knobelsdorff's designs. Famous buildings in the Frederican style include Sanssouci Palace, the Potsdam City Palace, and parts of Charlottenburg Palace.