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Simon Petrus Klotz

1776 Mannheim – 1824 Munich

The working life of the painter and lithographer Simon Petrus Klotz covers the decades before and after 1800 in an epoch of radical artistic transformation. Klotz came from a family of artists. His father Matthias had been Landscape Painter to the Hoftheater in Munich since 1778. It was from him that he received his initial training, after which Klotz went to study under the renowned Munich court painter, Johann Jakob Dorner the Elder. Bright watercolour landscapes were characteristic of Klotz’ early work, large parts of which must regrettably be considered lost. Several journeys undertaken in the years 1798–1800 took him to Vienna, Berlin, and Dresden, the birthplaces of the German Romantic movement, which was to have a profound influence on his later artistic work. In spring 1804, Klotz was appointed Professor for the Theory of Fine Arts at the University of Landshut. Like many of his fellow German artists he was drawn to Rome, which he visited shortly after taking up his new post in the years 1804–1805.