1785 Halle – 1863 Ostrau
„Two Pears on a Light Background“
11,2 x 20,1 cm
Oil on canvas
Fine Art, Up to 5,000 €
Galerie Paffrath
4.800
Adolf Senff was first a theologian in Leipzig before becoming a tutor for the children and a painting pupil of Gerhard von Kügelgen in Dresden in 1809. In 1813 Senff returned to Leipzig and worked as a portrait painter. In 1815 he volunteered to join the army to fight against the returning Napoleon. After his return Senff inherited in 1816 and could start a study trip to Italy. He went on foot via Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Gastein, the Brenner Pass and Florence to Rome, where he stayed until 1848. He was in close contact with Bertel Thorvaldsen as well as Franz Ludwig Catel, Christian Daniel Rauch and Wilhelm Schadow. He maintained contact with the Nazarenes Friedrich Overbeck and Philipp Veit as well as with Caroline von Humboldt. In 1848 he finally returned to Germany. After a first stay in Berlin, he settled in Ostrau near Halle. He remained in contact with Thorvaldsen and Rauch until the end of his life.
Senff’s art was influenced by German Romanticism and the Italian Renaissance. Especially Raphael was his model, whose works he also copied for the Prussian king. He was an honorary member of the ABA Perugia and declined the position of academy director offered to him. Apart from portraiture, his oeuvre was dominated by still lifes. In addition to plants and flowers, he painted fruits, such as the study “Two Pears on a Light Background”.
