Knaus, Ludwig

Born Oct. 5, 1829, in Wiesbaden, Hesse; died Dec. 7, 1910, in Berlin. German painter.

From 1845 to 1848, Knaus studied at the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf. From 1852 to 1860 he worked in Paris. He was a professor at the Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1874 to 1883. A representative of the Düsseldorf school, Knaus primarily painted genre scenes, in which he accurately depicted local customs and the various types of peasants found in the different regions of Germany. However, he did not draw any social conclusions and often idealized patriarchal life. Examples of Knaus’ work are The Children’s Festival (1869, National Gallery, Berlin) and The Peasant Meeting (1873, Kunsthalle, Hamburg).