Johann Harper (August 1688, Stockholm - 4 December 1746, Potsdam) was a Swedish painter who worked at the Prussian Royal Court.
Biography He was the son of Jakob Harper, a merchant, and his wife Anna née Pohl. His first painting lessons came from Peter Martin van Mytens and David von Krafft in Stockholm. Then he studied with the court painter Benoît Le Coffre in Copenhagen.Friedrich Nicolai, Beschreibung der königlichen Residenzstädte Berlin und Potsdam (1786), pg.127 Online @ Google Books.
In 1709, together with Ismael Mengs, eft Copenhagen for a trip to Germany, where he studied with Paul Heinecken in the Hanseatic City of Lübeck. After completing his studies, he became a popular miniature and enamel painter.Christian Emanuel Gernandt (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok, Konversationslexikon och Realencyklopedy., 1876, lexicon entry #1496.
From 1712, he worked in Berlin.Dictionary of Pastellists by Neil Jeffares In 1716, he was appointed court painter for the Hohenzollerns. There, he created portraits and decorations at Charlottenburg Palace. In the 1740s, he created the ceiling painting, "'Flora and her Followers" for the vestibule at the new Sanssouci palace in Potsdam,Gert Streidt, Klaus Frahm, Gabriele Leuthäuser, Peter Feierabend: Potsdam – Die Schlösser und Gärten der Hohenzollern. Könemann, Cologne, 1996, pg.38 which underwent a restoration in 2016.
His first marriage was to Maria Barbara Wolffgang, the daughter of J. G. Wolffgang, a copper engraver. Their eldest son, Adolf Friedrich Harper, learned miniature and flower painting at home. Later, he became a landscape painter in Stuttgart.
His best known student was the portrait painter and etcher, Joachim Martin Falbe. Several of his works may be seen at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
References
Further reading Karl Heinrich Heinecken: Nachrichten von Künstlern und Kunst-Sachen. Vol.1, Leipzig 1768, pgs.42, 48, 52, 53 (Online) "Johannes (Hans) Harper",. In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (Eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon. 2nd edition, Vol. A–K. Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, Online @ Project Runeberg. "Harper, Johann", In: Hans Vollmer (Ed.): Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, "Hansen–Heubach" E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1923, ( Online). Joachim Konietzny, Angelika Konietzny: Das Lübecker Wunderkind Christian Henrich Heineken und der Preußische Hofmaler Johann Harper. Pansdorf 2020,
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