Hans Hoffmann was a 16th-century German painter and draftsman. He was an artist on the Rudolph II‘s court (the one who loved arts and was probably mad) and a leading representative of the Dürer Renaissance, specialised in watercolor and gouache nature studies, many of them copied from or based on Dürer’s work.

Well, we know this hare from somewhere, don’t we?

Hoffmann’s imitations were so admired that a biographer described him as “a diligent painter . . . who copied Albrecht Dürer so assiduously that many of his works were sold as Dürer originals.”

In 1585 he was appointed as a court painter by Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, who brought him to the imperial court in Prague. At the imperial court, Hoffmann advised Rudolph on the development of his art collection and acquired for him works by Dürer to his famous Kunstkammer. But Hans Hoffmann, besides copying perfectly Durer, was also a talented artist who created his own masterpieces. Especially those presenting animals. We have collected some of them in this article:

The art collection assembled by the Nuremberg citizen Paulus Praun (de) contained more than 100 works by Hans Hoffmann. Because the collection was intact until the beginning of the 19th century, many of these works are documented.

While Hoffmann was also active as a painter of portraits and religious subjects, he is best remembered for his highly finished drawings after nature. It’s very important because artists of that time rarely painted after nature.

If you enjoyed this article, you must see this one: “7 Images Of Dürer’s Animals That Are Better Than A Trip To The Zoo“.