Johann Gottfried Steffan

Under the influence of Carl Rottmann, he turned to realistic landscape art. Steffan's studio became the center for Swiss artists in Munich, including Rudolf Koller, Johann Caspar Bosshardt and Arnold Böcklin, although he was also associated with artists from Germany. His pupils include Traugott Schiess (1834–69) and Otto Frölicher. He made several study trips to the Swiss Alps, especially to the Canton of Glarus and to Lake Walen. Later, he often went to Berchtesgaden and to Ramsau where he found many of his motifs. Steffan's paintings mostly are idealistic landscapes of the Munich School and often show mountain motifs. Koller compared his style to Alexandre Calame. Franz Zelger, in his entry in Grove Art Online, describes him as an "outstanding and sensitive observer of nature" although notes "his manner was often slick and conventional". His son Arnold Steffan (1848–82) was also a landscape artist. Steffan died on June 16, 1905, in Munich.

Johann Gottfried Steffan studied at Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. Joseph Wenglein and Julius Noerr are recorded as having studied under Johann Gottfried Steffan. The recorded working language is German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are landscape. Places of work recorded in the authority are Munich. Work by Johann Gottfried Steffan is recorded in the collections of Führermuseum, Victoria and Albert Museum and Kunsthaus Zürich.

• Mittag in den Glarner Alpen, Bergbach ("Noon in the Alps of Glarus, Mountain Stream", 1857), House of Art, Aarau • Der Mont d'Orge bei Sitten ("Mont d'Orge by Sitten", 1869), Museum of Art, Luzern • Landscape Study at Lake Starnberg (1872), Zurich, Ksthaus • Alp im Klöntal ("Alp in the Kloen Valley", 1880), House of Art, Glarus • Bergsee bei heranziehendem Gewitter ("Mountain Lake at a Gathering Thunderstorm", 1886), House of Art, Zurich