Johann August Nahl was a German sculptor and stuccist

Stucco

Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

.

He was first taught by his father Johann Samuel Nahl (1664–1727), who had been court sculptor of Frederic I

Frederick I of Prussia

Frederick I , of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia in personal union . The latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia . From 1707 he was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...

 since 1704. At the age of 18, Nahl undertook a journey via Sigmaringen

Sigmaringen

Sigmaringen is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district....

 and Bern to Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, where he worked for Robert Le Lorrain

Robert Le Lorrain

Robert Le Lorrain was a French baroque sculptor who was born in Paris. He was born into a family of bureaucrats, the son of Claude Le Lorrain, a business agent of Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV's Minister of Finance. Le Lorrain was a student of the French sculptor, painter, and architect, Pierre...

. In 1731 he went to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, then in 1734 to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, 1735 to Schaffhausen

Schaffhausen

Schaffhausen is a city in northern Switzerland and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimated population of 34,587 ....

 and then back to Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

. Here he initially worked for the French royal steward François Klinglin and then later on the bishopal palace of Armand-Gaston de Rohan-Soubise

Palais Rohan, Strasbourg

The Palais Rohan is one of the most important buildings in the city of Strasbourg in Alsace, France. It represents not only the high point of local baroque architecture, according to widespread opinion among art historians, but has also housed three of the most important museums in the city since...

. In 1736 he earned citizenship in Strasbourg.

Nahl is the author of the brass made in honour of Maria Magdalena Langhans, a clergyman's wife who died giving birth, in the church Hindelbank in the Bern

Canton of Berne

The Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south...

 Canton

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 - this brass was one of the most admired in the 18th century. Regarding this, Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote the following to Charlotte von Stein

Charlotte von Stein

Charlotta Ernestina Bernadina von Stein was a lady-in-waiting at the court in Weimar and a close friend to both Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose work and life were strongly influenced by her.-Childhood:Charlotte′s parents were Hofmarschall Johann Wilhelm Christian von...

 on 20 October 1779:

"In order to hear about the tomb of the clergymen in the Hindelback you will have to have patience, for I have much to tell on, about and for it. It is a subject about which one could read many a long chapter. I wish I were able to write everything down right now. I have heard so much about it and consumed it, so to speak. People readily speak with firm enthusiams about such things, and nobody looks at what the artist has done, or indeed wanted to do. "
{art-stub}

Personal life

His great-grandsons were the half-brothers Charles Christian Nahl

Charles Christian Nahl

Carl Christian Heinrich Nahl , later known as Charles Nahl, and sometimes Karl Nahl, Charles Christian Nahl or Charles C. Nahl, was a German-born painter who is called California's first significant artist.-Early years:He was the son of Georg Valentin Friedrich Nahl and Henriette Nahl...

 and Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl

Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl

Arthur Nahl was a German-born artist, daguerreotyper, engraver, portraitist, and landscape painter. Nahl was a painter known for his American Old West paintings of California...

, painters of the American Old West

American Old West

The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...

.

External links

http://edbessrv6.unibe.ch/digibern/de/Engine/Systematik/viewer.asp?KatalogID=4&ImgNum=12680&ImgCount=52&RecordNum=738&strEinsprungpunkt=Weidner,+Thomas:+Die+Grabmonumente+von+Johann+August+Nahl+in+Hindelbank:+1995&AnzahlEbenen=1&Ebene1=00000016&Display_Ebene1=W&Ebene2=00000738&Display_Ebene2=Weidner,+Thomas:+Die+Grabmonumente+von+Johann+August+Nahl+in+Hindelbank:+1995&viewer=allgThomas Weidner: Die Grabmonumente von Johann August Nahl in Hindelbank, Berner Journal für Geschichte und Heimatkunde 1995]

• • Article written in the Bern journal for local and general history on the monuments made by Nahl in the Hindelbank.