TRAUTMANN, JOHANN GEORG

Zweibrücken 1713–1769 Frankfurt a. M.

Johann Georg Trautmann was born in 1713 in the small residential town of Zweibrücken and studied under the court and decorative painter Ferdinand Bellon. As a journeyman and wallpaper painter in Frankfurt am Main, he was granted citizenship in 1740 and founded his own workshop. His works mainly served the tastes and needs of local art collectors, and Trautmann painted biblical stories, often "à la Rembrandt", and character heads, as well as genre and peasant pieces in the Dutch style. A special feature were his nocturnal conflagrations and robber or gypsy scenes with campfires, in each case conceived as examples of dramatic lighting.