Biography

German architect and landscape and portrait painter. He was court architect to Jérôme Bonaparte of Westphalia and to Louis I of Bavaria, for whom he built many structures in the Italian Renaissance and Neoclassical styles. His chief works in Munich were the Glyptothek (1815-30), the Pinakothek, and the Odeon (1828). In 1839 he began additions to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

In addition to building, Von Klenze studied public building finance, designed and arranged museum galleries of ancient art, and was an accomplished painter. His paintings exhibit a richness of detail and special attention to light and compositional space. He successfully combined his talent for sharp observation with an equal and complementary ability to improve upon nature. On his visits to Italy, he both drew and painted landscapes and examined the remains of Greek temples as sources for his archaeological Greek style.