Peter von Hess

Peter von Hess initially received training from his father Carl Ernst Christoph Hess. He accompanied his younger brother Heinrich Maria to Munich in 1806, and enrolled at the Munich Academy at the age of sixteen. He also trained under Wilhelm von Kobell.

During the Napoleonic Wars, he was allowed to join the staff of General Wrede, who commanded the Bavarians in the military operations which led to the abdication of Napoleon. There he gained novel experiences of war and a taste for extensive travel. During this time, von Hess painted his first battle pieces.^[1] In 1818, he spent some time in Italy where he painted landscapes and various Italian scenes and travelled to Naples with Joseph Petzl and a group of other Bavarian artists.

In 1833, at King Ludwig I of Bavaria's request, he accompanied Otto of Greece to the newly formed Kingdom of Greece, where at Athens he gathered materials for pictures of the war of liberation. The sketches which he then made were placed, forty in number, in the Pinakothek, after being copied in wax on a large scale by Nilsen, in the northern arcades of the Hofgarten at Munich.^[1] King Otho's entrance into Nauplia was the subject of a large and crowded canvas now in the Pinakothek, which Hess executed in person.

Peter von Hess' work has been evaluated positively for its execution but some have questioned its boldness and congeniality.^[1]

He is buried in the Alter Südfriedhof in Munich.

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  Alexander Ypsilantis crosses the Pruth
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  Andreas Vokos Miaoulis
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  Alexandros Mavrokordatos defends Missolonghi
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  Bouboulina
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  Sacred Band fighting at Dragatsani
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  The hanging of Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople
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  Botsaris dying in Karpenisi
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  Antonis Oikonomou
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  Battle of Berezina (1812)
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  (First) Battle of Krasnoi
  (14 August 1812)
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  The Entry of King Othon of Greece into Nauplia (1835)
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  Otto’s entry to Athens (1839)

•   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hess". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

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