Franz Nadorp

Franz Johann Heinrich Nadorp, (June 23, 1794 – September 17, 1876) was a German painter who primarily worked and lived in Rome.

Landscape of the Roman Campagna by Franz Nadorp, Galerie Bassenge, Berlin

Nadorp was born in Isselburg into a family of artists. He was the only son of Johann Theodor Nadorp and Gertrud Anna Stroof. After his education at the Anholt City school, he was joined at age 20 by a fellowship of his country gentlemen Prince Constantin of Salm-Salm in the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, where he trained as a historical painter with his teacher Joseph Bergler. Nadorp was the favorite pupil of Bergler. In 1822 he received the gold medal of the Academy. When in 1826 his mentor died, Nadorp broke his tents from Prague and returned in 1827 for a few months in his hometown district of Anholt in Isselburg.

In the fall of 1827 Nadorp traveled with his companions Prince Franz of Salm-Salm to Rome. The city of Rome drew at the time many German artists, such as Peter Cornelius, Johann Friedrich Overbeck and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Nadorp was quite fast in the group of German artists, called the "Nazarenes". He was one of the founders of the Roman Künstlerbund (1829) and the German Artists' Union (1845). The years 1840-1850 are among his most fertile. Numerous drawings surviving.

During this time, Nadorp met the King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and they both shared a friendship. 1859 Nadorp was received by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, and led to his first government contract. Nadorp left Rome only rarely in the nearly 50 years of local work. In 1862 he returned for a short time back in his hometown. For his baptismal church of St. Pancras, he created an altarpiece The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple and drew the located shortly before the demolition of the old town church. In 1876 Prince Alfred I of Salm-Salm granted him an annuity.

Nadorp, which is considered a romantic German painter in style, died shortly thereafter in Rome and buried at Campo Santo Teutonico next to St. Peter in the Vatican. His entire estate was transferred to the Princes of Salm -Salm and can still be seen today in the Museum Wasserburg Anholt and in the parish church of St. Pancras.