October 16, 2013 <Back to Index>
PAGE SPONSOR |
Daniel Niklaus Chodowiecki (16 October 1726 – 7 February 1801) was a Polish - German painter and printmaker with Huguenot ancestry, who is most famous as an etcher. He spent most of his life in Berlin, and became the director of the Berlin Academy of Art. He was born in the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in Poland, and in a letter “in typical Berlin humor” wrote, “that he moved to Berlin, Germany, which shows for sure, that he is a 'genuine Pole'.” He kept close to the Huguenot scene, due to his ancestry. A distant ancestor Bartholomāus Chodowiecki had lived in the 16th century in Greater Poland. Gottfried Chodowiecki, Daniel's father, was a tradesman in Danzig and his mother, Henriette Ayrer born in Switzerland, was a Huguenot. Daniel's grandfather Christian had been a tradesman in the city as well. When his father died, both Daniel (aged 16) and his younger brother Gottfried Chodowiecki went to live with their uncle in Berlin, who offered to educate them, and where Daniel received an artistic training with the painter Haid in Augsburg. His brother also became a painter. Soon
Daniel was able to earn a living by painting. He was admitted to the
Berlin Academy in 1764 and became vice director under Rhode in 1788. He
had found his true calling and became the most famous German graphic
artist of his time. His works include several thousand etchings,
usually rather small, and many drawings and paintings. He illustrated
nearly all of the great classics. His prints represent in great detail
the life of the middle classes during the Zopfstil period, a time between Rococo and Classicism. In 1797 Chodowiecki was appointed director of the Academy of Arts in Berlin, where he died on 7 February 1801. The bulk of his work was in illustrating scientific books by Basedow, Buffon, Lavater, Pestalozzi and others. He also painted many portraits of Polish gentry and was interested in Huguenot and Polish history as well, making some paintings on the topic. He was in tune with the developing spirit of the age, and many works reflect the cult of sensibility, and then the revolutionary and German nationalist feelings of the end of the century. In printmaking, he is credited with the invention of the deliberate remarque,
a small sketch on a plate, lying outside the main image. These were
originally little sketches or doodles by artists, not really meant to
be seen, but Chodowiecki turned them into "bonus items" for collectors. Chodowiecki, though speaking only French and German (due
to his offices in the Huguenot French community in Berlin he often
spoke French), many times also declared his Polish allegiance and had
his son Isaac Heinrich, born in Berlin, painted as a very young child
with a Polish outfit and haircut. After Partitions of Poland Chodowiecki
wrote to Gräfin Solms - Laubach: "From father side I`m a Pole,
descendant of brave nation, which soon disappear". In a letter to Józef Łęcki, the Polish astronomer, he wrote: "I consider it to be an honour to be a true Pole, even though I am now living in Germany". Because
of his mother's and his wife's Huguenot descent he was very close to
the Huguenots of Berlin. Nearly all his life and career was spent in
Germany, writing in German and living in Berlin from the age of almost
17. One of his most popular books is "Journey from Berlin to Danzig" (German: "Die Reise von Berlin nach Danzig",
1773) with many illustrations. He purchased a horse rather than going
by stage coach. This was his first return after 30 years absence and he
went specifically to see his elderly mother and sisters in Danzig
again. He made only one more trip to Danzig afterwards, to his mother's
funeral. He describes and illustrates towns and people in Pomerania and
Prussia on the way. Chodowiecki is buried at the Französischer Friedhof in Berlin. |