JOHANN ANDREAS WOLFF (1652-1716). DRAUGHTSMANSHIP IN MUNICH AROUND 1700

Johann Andreas Wolff, court painter to the Elector of Bavaria in Munich and to the Prince Bishop in Freising, played a leading role in the building or renovation of numerous ecclesiastical and secular buildings in southern Germany and Austria from around 1680 – including, for example, the modernisation of state rooms in the Munich Residenz under Prince-Elector Max Emanuel. Wolff had a decisive influence on the flowering of the Baroque in the whole northern Alpine region. His extraordinarily fine altarpieces still dominate many south-German and Austrian churches and monasteries. The Staatliche Graphische Sammlung preserves more than half of his surviving drawings, and these are being put on display to mark the 300th anniversary of his death. Wolff emerges as a draughtsman of consistently dazzling virtuosity, a master of every facet of the art of drawing, from the swift conceptual sketch to the finished bravura piece.

The catalogue is sponsored by Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung.