The New International Encyclopædia/Roos, Johann Heinrich

ROOS, rōs, Johann Heinrich (1631-85). A German animal painter and etcher, born at Otterberg in the Palatinate. Early in life he went to Amsterdam, where he studied under Juliaen du Jardin, Barend Graat, and Adriaen de Brie. In 1650-54 he visited Italy, France, and England, in 1657 settled at Frankfort, and in 1673 was appointed court painter to the Elector-Palatine. At first Roos painted portraits and genre scenes, but soon turned to those animal pieces with landscape surroundings, for which he is famous, excelling particularly in the representation of sheep. His works, notwithstanding their great finish and his comparatively short life, are very numerous and are to be found in the Pinakothek in Munich, in Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and Frankfort, while two may be seen in the collection of the Historical Society, New York. His forty-four etchings are also held in great esteem. His son and pupil, Philipp Peter (surnamed Rosa di Tivoli) (1655-1705), born at Frankfort, painted landscapes and animals, in his earlier period in the style of his father; but in 1677 he went to Rome, studied under Brandi, whose daughter he married, and after settling at Tivoli, whence his surname, he adopted a peculiar style of his own, painting life-size figures and animals in a broad manner and a heavy brown tone and producing a rather unpleasant effect. Another son and pupil, Johann Melchior (1659-1731), born at Frankfort, was an animal and portrait painter. The Darmstadt and Stuttgart museums contain each a “Stag Hunt” and a “Boar Hunt,” the Dresden Gallery, “Stags Under an Oak” (1714), and the Städel Gallery, Frankfort, a “Lion Family in a Landscape” (1716).