Neff, Carl Timoleon von

Painter, art collector

Born: 14.10.1804 in Püssi Manor (today Ida-Viru County, Estonia)

died: 05.01.1877 in St. Petersburg

From 1824, Neff studied painting at the Dresden Academy of Art. In 1826, he settled in St. Petersburg, where he was soon in demand as a portraitist. He became court painter under Tsar Nicholas I (1796-1855). After a stay in Italy, he taught as a professor at the St. Petersburg Academy from 1839. In 1846 he became an honorary member of the "Accademia" in Florence. In 1864, Tsar Alexander II (1818-1881) appointed him curator at the Hermitage for his outstanding achievements. In his manor house at Muuga in Estonia, built in 1866 and still standing today, Neff amassed an important art collection, parts of which are now kept in the Estonian Art Museum in Tallinn.

Neff owed his international success primarily to icon painting, which he fundamentally changed in style and made accessible to Western influences. It resembles the romantic-religious painting of the Nazarenes. In Russia, he received numerous commissions from the Orthodox Church. He painted the iconostases of St. Petersburg's St. Isaac's Cathedral and the former Church of the Redeemer in Moscow, which was the model for the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Elisabeth in Wiesbaden. Duke Adolph zu Nassau had this church built for his wife, the 19-year-old Elisabeth Duchess zu Nassau, who died young, and commissioned Neff to paint the iconostasis. Neff's portrait, a relief in a medallion, is located inside the church, to the left of the south door. It was created by the stonemason Johann-Peter Leonhard (1793-1873).

The paintings on the altar walls of the Russian churches in Bad Ems, Darmstadt, Helsinki, Edinburgh, London and Nice are by Neff's hand.