Goffredo (Gottfried) Wals (c. 1595 - 1638)

• Was a German painter.
• Wals spent most of his career in Italy.
• He was sometimes referred to as Goffredo Tedesco (Goffredo the German).
• He was born in Cologne.
• He wandered about through numerous Italian cities, including Naples and Genoa; arriving in Rome around 1615.
• There, he became an assistant to Agostino Tassi, a harsh master who attacked him with blows from a club and was briefly imprisoned in 1616, when Wals filed a complaint.
• The following year, he lived with the newly arrived Massimo Stanzione, in the Roman quarter of Trastevere.
• From 1620 to 1622, Claude Lorrain was an occasional student of his.
• In 1623, he was back in Genoa with Antonio Travi as his student. • Most of his works were in small format, often circular and painted on copper.
• His Catalogue raisonné contains only twenty-five works that have been definitely identified as painted by him.
• He most probably died in Calabria, during or shortly after the earthquake of 27 March 1638, which killed almost 10,000 people.
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