Nikolaus Hoff
German, 1798-1873
Follow
Johann Nikolaus Hoff was a German engraver, lithographer, draftsman and drawing teacher.
Nikolaus Hoff was an older brother of the engraver Carl Hoff. Encouraged by the etcher and painter Anton Radl, he initially trained with the Frankfurt engraver Johann Gottlieb Prestel. From 1815 to 1821 he attended the Stuttgart art school. There he was a student of Johann Gotthard von Müller. In 1819 he visited Dresden, and later Munich.
He came to Rome on October 21, 1822 as a scholarship holder from the Städel Institute. He lived there until the spring of 1825. During this time he became friends with Ludwig Richter, with whom he remained close throughout his life. Alongside Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Josef von Hempel and Carl Koopmann, he sang in the choir of the Evangelical Lutheran community in Rome. In 1824 he visited Perugia and Assisi, and in 1825 Naples and Florence. He returned to Frankfurt in 1826 at the latest. In 1827 he married Elisabeth, née Scheurer. The later Frankfurt drawing teacher and artist biographer Johann Friedrich Hoff (1832–1913) emerged from the marriage. In addition to his work as an engraver, lithographer and draftsman, Nikolaus Hoff worked as a drawing teacher in Frankfurt. One of his students was Elisabeth Schultz.
