Kopisch, August

POET, PAINTER (GERMANY)
BORN 26 May 1799, Breslau (now: Wroclaw) - DIED 6 Feb 1853, Berlin
GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof II, Bergmanstrasse 39-41, Kreuzberg (C-W.S.-52)

August Kopisch was the son of the rich merchant Christian Gottlieb Kopisch from Breslau. He was educated in Breslau before he studied art in Dresden and Praque from 1815 to 1818. From 1817 to 1819 he studied history painting in Vienna. Apart from his painting, he wrote poetry and played the piano and the guitar.

In the winter of 1820-1821 he broke his hand and he decided to give up painting and to concentrate on literature. Only 23 paintings of his hand are known and a dozen of them still exist.

He travelled to Italy in 1824 and he claimed to have discovered the famous blue grotto at Capri during a swimming party together with the painter Ernst Fries in 1826. In Naples he started painting again.

In 1829 he returned to Breslau and from 1833 onwards he lived in Berlin where he obtained a professorship. In 1847 he moved to Potsdam and he was loyal to the king during the revolutiin of 1848-1849. In 1853 he married Marie von Sellin. He died in 1853 in Berlin.

Images

The grave of August Kopisch at the Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof II, Berlin.
Picture by Androom (28 May 2015)

 

Sources
Baedeker Berlin, Baedeker Verlag, Stuttgart, 1994
Winkler Prins Encyclopedie (editie 1909), 1909
August Kopisch - Wikipedia


Koppenhöfer, Maria

Published: 15 Jul 2017
Last update: 06 Apr 2022