Adam Friedrich von L?wenfinck

(b Kalisch, 1714; d Haguenau, 13 Nov 1754). German ceramics painter of Polish birth. In 1727 he began his apprenticeship at the Meissen Porcelain Factory as a flower painter. In 1734 he completed his training but was forced to flee Meissen on 3 October 1736 (allegedly as an embezzler and debtor) and began work at the faience factory in Bayreuth. In 1737, in view of his possible extradition to a Saxon commissioner, the painter Joseph Philipp Dannhofer ( fl 1737-44) helped him escape, probably to Ansbach. It is possible that he also briefly stayed during this period at Chantilly in France. On 15 October 1741 he was appointed Hoff-Emailler-Mahler in Fulda (e.g. tureen and cover, 1745; London, V&A). On 1 March 1746, together with two merchants, he established a faience factory in H?chst and became its first director. In 1747 he attempted to bring his younger brother, Christian Wilhelm L?wenfinck, and five other painters from the Meissen factory to H?chst. Christian Wilhelm L?wenfinck (1720-53), however, remained there only until November 1748 and then escaped to Strasbourg. On 28 October 1747 L?wenfinck married the porcelain painter Maria Seraphia Susanna Magdalena Schick (1728-1805) in Fulda. Disgraced by the Elector because of his brother's escape, L?wenfinck left H?chst on 19 March 1749 for Koblenz where he probably attempted to start a faience factory in Sch?nbornlust. Shortly thereafter he went to the Haguenau branch of the Strasbourg Faience Factory, which belonged to the Hannong family. In 1751 he was appointed Director of the Haguenau factory. A number of irregularly marked works have been attributed to him, although the motifs, including chinoiseries, landscapes and animals (e.g. jug with hunting scene; Hamburg, Mus. Kst & Gew.), digress from the colourful flower paintings that he is known to have produced in Meissen. L?wenfinck is regarded as an outstanding porcelain- and faience painter, whose European as well as Chinese decorative schemes contributed considerably to ceramic decoration during the first half of the 18th century.

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