Christoph Heinrich Kniep

Christoph Heinrich Kniep
Selfportrait
Born	1755 Hildesheim
Died	1825 Naples
Nationality	German
Occupation	Painter

Christoph Heinrich Kniep (1755 – 1825), was a German painter. He is renowned for accompanying Goethe in his Italian Journey to Naples, Paestum and Sicily, executing several drawings whilst there.

Initially, he worked as a portrait artist, then in 1781 he traveled to Italy, where he painted primarily vistas and landscapes. He met Goethe in Naples, being introduced to him by a mutual friend, the artist Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein. After separating from Goethe on his return from Sicily, Kniep remained in Naples, where he died in 1825.^[1]

View of the Paestum temples, drawn whilst there with Goethe.

Kniep's drawings of Paestum and Pompeii are of extraordinary detail, and have also been used as archaeological documents.^[2]

Notes

1. Cf. Georg Striehl, Der Zeichner Christoph Heinrich Kniep (1755-1825) (1998); also Joseph Eduard Wessely, Kniep, Christoph Heinrich (1882).
2. Cf. Georg Striehl, op. cit.

References

• Georg Striehl, Der Zeichner Christoph Heinrich Kniep (1755-1825). Landschaftsauffassung und Antikenrezeption, Hildesheim, 1998.
• Joseph Eduard Wessely, Kniep, Christoph Heinrich, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Band 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, S. 288.

External links

• Auszüge aus Georg Striehl: Der Zeichner Christoph Heinrich Kniep
• Hans-Wolf Jäger (1980), "Kniep, Christoph Heinrich", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 12, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 181–182; (full text online)