In the history of art, Johann Friedrich Overbeck is one of the names that keeps being returned to.
The record lists Johann Friedrich Overbeck as German painter, a member of the Nazarene movement (1789–1869).
Johann Friedrich Overbeck was born at Lübeck in 1789. His recorded nationality is Lübeck. He trained at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Katharineum.
Academies set the rules in this period - what counted as a serious subject, and who was allowed to train.
He worked as painter, illustrator and writer.
His recorded movement is neoclassicism and nazarene movement.
Among his best-known works are Italia and Germania, The Selling of Joseph and The Painter Franz Pforr. Looking is a skill, and the artists who last are those who taught their audience how to do it.
Recognition followed: Order of Saint Michael (1839), Commander's Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph (1860), Benemerenti medal (1850) and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Guadalupe (1865).
That the work was made in Lübeck shaped it: artistic traditions, academies and the galleries that decide what is seen have never been evenly distributed.
Johann Friedrich Overbeck died in 1869, aged 80. The work remains, hanging in collections that outlived both the artist and the market that first priced it.
Achievements
- Order of Saint Michael — 1839
- Commander's Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph — 1860
- Benemerenti medal — 1850
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Guadalupe — 1865
- Commander of the Order of Leopold — 1866
- Notable work: Italia and Germania
- Notable work: The Selling of Joseph
- Notable work: The Painter Franz Pforr
- Notable work: The Triumph of Religion in the Arts
- Movement: Neoclassicism and Nazarene movement
