Heinrich Maria von Hess

Heinrich Maria von Hess (19 April 1798 in Düsseldorf – 29 Märch 1863 in Munich) was a German painter, a member of the Nazarene movement.

Biography

Hess was born at Düsseldorf and brought up to the profession of art by his father, the engraver Carl Ernst Christoph Hess. Carl Hess had already acquired a name when in 1806 the elector of Bavaria, having been raised to a kingship by Napoleon, transferred the Düsseldorf academy and gallery to Munich. Carl Hess accompanied the academy to its new home, and there continued the education of his children. Heinrich Hess's skills and reputation attracted the attention of King Maximilian, who sent him in 1821 to Rome, with a stipend, During his four years there, he came under the influence of Johann Friedrich Overbeck. A copy Hess made of Raphael's Parnassus, and the study of great examples of monumental design, probably caused him to become a painter of ecclesiastical subjects on a large scale. In 1826 he was made professor of painting and later, director of all the art collections at Munich. and the monumental picture of the Virgin and Child enthroned between the four doctors, and receiving the homage of the four patrons of the Munich churches (now in the Pinakothek).