Hans Von Marées, “The Orange Grove”, 1873, Fresco, Stazione Zoologica, Naples, Italy
Born in 1837 in Elberfeld, Prussia, Hans Von Marées studied at the Berlin Academy from 1853 to 1855. In 1854, he also entered the studio of painter and printmaker Car Steffeck. Marées moved to Munich where he worked for eight years, influenced by the historical school of painting. He then traveled to italy in 1864 where he lived for twenty years. In 1873 he received his most important commission, the 
painting of the frescoes in the library of the newly built Stazione Zoologica, the zoological museum in Naples. The frescoes consisted of landscape scenes with figures, intended to express the joys of sea and beach life. “The Orange Grove” is a fresco from that series.
Hans Von Marées initially specialized in portraiture but later turned to painting mythological subjects. He developed an individualistic technique of overpainting tempera with layers of oil, creating a depth of color quite unlike the muted tones of his fellow artists. During the 1880s, Marées painted four triptychs of importance: “The Judgement of Paris”, “The Hesperides”, “The Wooing”, and “Three Saints on Horseback”. He spent his last years of his life in Rome, supported by his patron, art theorist Konrad Fiedler. Marées died at the age of 49 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome in the rione of Testaccio.
In 1935, Hans Von Marées’s painting “Die Labung,(The Refresment)” was stolen by the Nazi regime,. In 1980 the painting came into the possession of the Museum Wiesbaden, the museum of art and natural history in Wiesbaden, Germany. In order to fulfill the museum’s project of identifying and returning Nazi-plundered artwork, the museum showed only the back side of the painting until it could gather enough donations to purchase the work.
Insert Image: Hans von Marées, “Doppelbildnis Marées und (Franz) Lenbach”, 1863, Oil on Canvas, 54.3 x 62 cm, Schack Collection, Munich, Germany