Jacob Philippe
Hackert

German painter, draftsman. Studied with his father, portrait of F. Hackert. From 1754 worked in the Berlin Academy, showing interest in landscape painting. From 1762 he lived in Pomerania, in 1765-1766 in Paris and Normandy. Traveled extensively in Italy. From 1782 he lived in Naples, where he worked as court painter to Ferdinand IV, had a workshop at the Royal Palace in Caserta. In 1787, he met with Goethe, who wrote about it, as Fishbane, biographical sketch (1804). In 1799 he worked in Pisa and Florence. Between 1800 and settled in San Pietro di Karega, near Florence. Worked as a landscape painter, made the drawings from nature, he studied watercolor.

The work of this German artist associated with Italy, where he settled in 1768 and spent the rest of his life. Hackert was a prominent master of landscape; his paintings, watercolors, drawings convey the flavor of the era of the second half of the XVIII century, in the center of the aesthetic interests which Italy and its great ancient heritage and has occupied a prominent place.

After graduating in 1762, the Academy of arts in Berlin, Hackert lived in Pomerania, and 1762-1766 years spent in Paris and Normandy. It is known that early showing a tendency to the landscape, he wrote in France the types of gouache. Much more information has survived about his subsequent activities. In 1768, together with his brother John he went to Rome at the invitation of their mutual friend, the Scottish painter G. Hamilton.

Formed in Germany in the circle of followers of the aesthetic ideas of theorists I. Winkelmann, and J. G. Sulzer, their student — artist who worked in Rome, A. R. Mengs, Hackert gets to Rome on Wednesday of masters, fascinated by the ideas of Neoclassicism. He has traveled extensively throughout Italy, studying the antique, sketching from nature. Of Rome 1770-1780-ies and landscapes of Tivoli 1780s executed in a cool light silver color scheme, with clearly written details dalev prospects. They are easy to grasp and clearly focused plans. Ancient monuments of the Eternal city does not look romantic memories of glorious bygone past, as in capricci contemporaries, linking multi-temporal constructions in the imaginary types. They passed the brush of the artist, prone to the exact details of their reproduction in natural landscape environment. But these dry, solved in the classic manner landscapes, embody the special charm due to its compositional rigor and somewhat artificial color they art and decorative.

In 1774, Hackert made a trip to Naples, after completing a series of drawings for publication Campi Flegrei (1776), taken by the British envoy at the court of Ferdinand IV by Lord William Hamilton. A connoisseur of antiquity, in the spirit of the time was fond of Volcanology, Lord Hamilton was the owner of the splendid collections of painted vases, bronzes, and minerals in your Naples Palazzo Sessa and villas in Portici, Caserta, Pizzofalcone and the surrounding area of the hill of Posillipo. Executed for his edition of the drawings of the Painting and other artists were created during the scientific expeditions to the crater of mount Vesuvius, near Naples. Description of the area was drawn up by Hamilton, and drawings reproduced the characteristic topographic features of the landscape, scenes of everyday life inscribed in the landscapes. Subtle lyrical observations were combined in these figures the species with the scientific documentation, meet the requirements of the age of Enlightenment.

Graphic artist's legacy is interesting from the point of view that in his later paintings, created during his travels through the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, Hackert will tend to the same topographically accurate and characteristic delineation of the landscape, bringing in elements of the genre. Landscape with the image of the temples of Selinunte, Segesta, Agrigento, Sicily, view of Capri, Measles, Baia, Posillipo, San Lecce, Siracusa, the ancient theatre of Pompey Park and the Royal Palace of Caserta is written with a more gentle convergence of plans, with a gentle sfumato, enveloping buildings, more truthfully transmitted lighting effects. From the masters of the "school of Posillipo" Hackert borrows the technique of placing tiny figures of fishermen, farmers, sailors, travelers in the foreground. They reinforce the feeling of infinite space, passed to the South of Italy.

Enjoyed the special confidence of the king, Hackert has carried out his important assignment. For example, he was entrusted with the delivery to Naples from Rome of ancient monuments of the celebrated Farnese collection, adding to the Royal collection and later became the decoration of the museums of Naples. On special instructions of the king he executed a series of drawings and paintings depicting the harbors and of the events connected with the descent of ships on the water. The types of marinas in Messina, Ischia, Syracuse convey the flavour of life of the small port cities of southern Italy, the beauty and picturesqueness of these places. Hackert always accurately reproduces the diverse structure moored and at sea sailing, and in the foreground often depicts genre scenes.

European fame brought the artist executed in 1771, a series of battles for the Russian court, dedicated to the defeat of the Turkish fleet in the Aegean sea during the war of 1768-1774 (now the sketches and paintings are kept in the Peterhof, the Hermitage, the Gatchina Palace). In 1770 Hackert, who contributed to documentary exact reproduction of the ships of the Russian squadron and the flagship of the Turkish fleet, traveled to Livorno at the base of the Russian fleet. Battle scenes are depicted on the background of mountainous undulating shoreline. With great scenic skill transferred episodes of nighttime battles, anticipated the interest in the effects of night lighting with the romantics. Outbreaks of fire in the depths of the sea evokes the impression of the immense scale of the events of the battle ("Death of the Turkish fleet in Chesmensky battle", 1771, St.-Petersburg, the State Hermitage Museum). The stories of the battles of Chesma Hackert repeatedly on the orders of the European nobility. The authority of a German artist in Russia was very high. This is evidenced by sending to him as a retired St. Petersburg Academy of arts F. Matveev and M. Ivanova. For Catherine II, the Stroganov, A. K. Razumovsky, N. B. Yusupov he was doing landscapes, but in Russia there was only one day, transporting paintings Chesme series.

Creative activity Painting is diverse and full of exciting events, like the era in which he lived and the color of which convey his paintings. The manner of Painting had a significant influence on the landscape painters of the turn of XVIII—XIX centuries; one of his famous followers was the Italian Giuseppe Verdi.B. Bassi.