Johann Friedrich Steinkopf (painter)

Johann Friedrich Steinkopf (5 March 1737, Oppenheim - 30 January 1825, Stuttgart) was a German landscape, animal and porcelain painter.

He was born to Carl Otto Steinkopf (1713-1779), a Master butcher, and his wife, Anna Elisabeth, née Finkenauer (died 1773), the daughter of a city attorney.

[1] At the age of fourteen, after completing his primary education, his father sent him to work at a grocery store in Mannheim, despite his expressed interest in studying classical art.

In 1759, dissatisfaction with the way he was being treated prompted him to take a position at the porcelain factory in Ludwigsburg, which had been founded in 1758 under the direction of Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg.

[2] There, he supported his family by giving private drawing lessons and making copies of oil paintings by popular artists of Dutch origin; primarily Philips Wouwerman and Johann Heinrich Roos, both known for their scenes featuring animals.