Lot 2384 Dα

Kiepert studied painting, first at the Königsberg Art Academy and from 1850 to 1856 at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Wilhelm von Schadow and Karl Ferdinand Sohn. In 1858 he settled in Mitau and established a photographic studio there, which he gave up in 1872 to go to Riga and then to St Petersburg. He was awarded a diamond ring for a life-size portrait of the Grand Duke and heir to the throne Alexander. He later returned to Mitau for health reasons, where he died in 1887.

Herrmann Kiepert's complete oeuvre as a painter is presumed to be rather small; practically no works have appeared on the art market in the last 20 years. It is possible that the painting in question here is the work "Death of Cleopatra", which was shown at the Düsseldorf Art Exhibition in 1857 (Fee-Alexandra Haase: Topik und Kunstrezensionen. Argumentationselemente der deutschen Kunstkritik in zeitgenössischen Rezensionen zur Historienmalerei des ausgehenden 18. bis frühen 20. Jahrhunderts. Diss. University of Tübingen, 1997, p. 141).