Georg Wenzeslaus Von Knobelsdorff - Personal Assessments

Personal Assessments

Jakob Friedrich Baron von Bielfeld, who was for a time part of the crown prince's retinue in Rheinsberg, wrote in 1739: "Mr. von Knobelsdorff is a gentleman of serious disposition and with a somewhat stern visage, but of considerable merit. His external appearance is neither charming nor courtly, but that makes him no less admirable. I compare him to a beautiful oak tree, and you know, it is not at all necessary for all the trees in a garden to be trimmed into arches as gracefully as in Marly" (translation).

Heinrich Ludwig Manger mentions Knobelsdorff in his "Baugeschichte von Potsdam" (1789/90). After listing 30 pieces of architecture which were realized in Potsdam alone according to his plans, he also writes about Knobelsdorff as a painter: "Although it does not really belong in a history of architecture.—he produced many paintings, all of them directly from nature. He paid attention to every detail which he thought could be of possible future use, and sketched them in his notebook, which he kept in a particular place of his clothing. These drawings are free and easy and dashed off in his own masterly way. The same can also be said of his landscape paintings, because everything in them was painted from nature with a wonderful blending of colors, without being hard or too colorful" (translation).

Fredrick the Great wrote a commemorative address on Knobelsdorff in French and had it read on January 24, 1754 before the Academy of Sciences, to which Knobelsdorff had belonged since 1742 as an honorary member. He referred in it to the tensions which had arisen between the two of them in Knobelsdorff's last years, but made it very clear that he continued to admire him: "Knobelsdorff was on the whole held in high esteem because of his sincere and upright character. He loved the truth and believed it could not harm anyone. Agreeableness he considered to be a constraint and he avoided everything that seemed to restrict his freedom. One had to know him well to fully appreciate his merit. He encouraged young talents, loved artists, and preferred being sought out to putting himself in the forefront. Above all it must be said in his praise that he never confused competition with jealousy, two very different feelings " (translation).