Jakob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807), a painter whose work had a great impact on the development of modern landscape painting, achieved extraordinary fame during his lifetime, and Goethe held him in particular esteem. Hackert spent the greater part of his life in Italy, where he established himself in 1768 as an artist whose works were in demand worldwide. Travelers to Italy from abroad, including German artists, English nobility, and prominent royal clients, disseminated his paintings throughout Europe.
This is the first publication to present Hackert's oeuvre in its entirety: vedutas, coastal and river landscapes, hunting scenes, and atmospheric landscapes of the Roman Campagna, Naples, and Sicily. It examines the artist's stance at a turning point in the conception of the landscape. The artist's perfectly composed paintings make him one of the most important representatives of the Classicist tradition, yet with his precise rendering of the details he observed in nature, Hackert broke away the prevailing concepts of art.
 
Exhibition schedule: Klassik Stiftung Weimar, August 25-November 2, 2008 · Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, November 28, 2008-February 15, 2009