On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his death, the Casa di Goethe is the first museum in Italy to dedicate an exhibition to the draughtsman Christoph Heinrich Kniep (1755-1825).

Kniep is best known today as Goethe’s companion and draughtsman on his journey to Sicily. The artist, who became friends with Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Friedrich Bury, Johann Heinrich Schütz and Jakob Philipp Hackert during his almost three-year stay in Rome, spent the rest of his life in Naples after his return from Sicily. Here he developed a rich artistic oeuvre. Working for travellers on the ‘Grand Tour’ and the local aristocracy, Kniep created both realistic views of the Neapolitan countryside and large-scale ideal landscapes with mythological staffage, which were very popular among the public.