Daniel Hisgen

Daniel Hisgen (April 10, 1733 probably in Nieder-Weisel, Hesse, Germany – February 19, 1812 in Lich) was a German painter of the rococo period who worked as a church painter in Upper Hesse, specializing on cycles of paintings decorating the front of the gallery parapet in churches with an upper gallery.

The ancestors of the Hisgen (meaning "little house") family fled as Huguenots from France to the Netherlands and then distributed to the area near Montabaur, Wetzlar and Lich.

Nieder-Weisel citizens and Johann Georg went all the way to the Reichskammergericht (highest court in the Holy Roman Empire) on a dispute about building defects.

[2] The oldest son Friedrich Wilhelm, a government secretary in Hungen, was married to Catharina Margartha Rouge (born January 6, 1786).

The couple had 14 children including a son called Georg Konrad (April 20, 1820 in Lich - March 16, 1898), who emigrated without his wife Katharina Preiss (1819-1898) to America.

[5] Hisgen emerges primarily as a church painter in Upper Hesse and worked mainly in what is now the Giessen district, but also sporadically in the Wetzlar area and in the Vogelsberg region.

Due to his characteristic style and the cyclic structure of his gallery-paintings with biblical motifs, the parapet-paintings on railings in Bobenhausen II, Albach, Burkhardsfelden, Freienseen and Odenhausen/Lahn were attributed to the same artist.

[7] These works of provincial art lean on models, but develop those in the late Baroque style, which is reflected in the use of light on moving figures.

[8] In Atzbach and other churches his students or children are chronicled to have contributed with "clumsy hands" ("ungeschickteren Händen") on the parapet-paintings, suggesting the good reputation of the master.

[2] Until 2015 twelve upper Hessian churches (all heritage listed) have been identified as having pictures with biblical scenes by Hisgen.

In the years 1762/1763 he worked for 126 days on new surfaces for the pulpit and the princes gallery in St. Mary's collegiate church in Lich, for which he received 292 Guilder.