János Donát

János Donát (born as Johann Daniel Donat; 22 December 1744 – 11 May 1830) was a German-born Hungarian painter.

Life

Early life János Donát was born as Johann Daniel Donat in Neuzelle, in the Margraviate of Brandenburg of the Kingdom of Prussia (today Germany) on 22 December 1744. He did his elementary and secondary studies in Prague, Bohemia. Then he went to Marienstern Abbey (today in Mühlberg, Germany) where he learnt to draw.

Life in Vienna (1766–1795) In 1766 at the age of 22 he applied to study at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna where his masters were Johann Christian Brand, Joseph Kreutzinger, Martin van Meytens, Caspar Franz Sambach, Josef Fischer and Franz Edmund Weirotter and he received a qualification for historical painting of portraits and landscapes. He was at that time already so talented that Weirotter exhibited two of his pictures in the Redouten Saale in the royal palace, the Hofburg. His oldest known painting is from 1774 of an unknown nobleman and it is today in Ptuj Castle (Ptuj, Slovenia).

He was also noted for his compositions such as Resting Venus, Orfeus and Euridike, and Proserpina which were paintings of mythological creatures painted after English copper engravings.

He died in Pest on 11 May 1830.

Personal life János Donát and Ferenc Kazinczy were friends. Kazinczy asked him to copy Joseph Kreutzinger's portrait of him. The work was finished in 1812.

Ferenc Kazinczy was a good friend of Donát's. They corresponded in Hungarian.

Donát's first wife was Theresia Rössler (1745–1802). In 1809 Donát married Susanna Rieger (30 August 1784 – 27 September 1849), a mulatto 40 years younger than him. Kazinczy called her Marie in his letters to Donát. According to Kazinczy, she was the illegitimate daughter of Carl, the prince of Lichtenstein.

Literature Zsuzsanna Bakó - Donát János festő munkássága