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Benno. Illustration for "Benno" by August Wahlmann

Daniel Chodowiecki

  • Benno. Illustration for "Benno" by August Wahlmann
Basic information
ID
Г-IV-1242
Author
Daniel Chodowiecki
Name
Benno. Illustration for "Benno" by August Wahlmann
Country
Germany
Technique
etching
Material
paper
Dimensions
9.4 x 5.9 cm (height x width)
Additionally
Type
graphic art
Genre
symbolic art
Provenance
Collection of Boleslaw Orzechowicz Transferred by the Lviv State Republican Historical Museum by order of the Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR in February 1961
Information about author
Author
Daniel Chodowiecki
Artist's lifetime
1726–1801
Country
Poland, Germany
Biography
Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726, Gdańsk – 1801, Berlin) – a Polish-German artist, printmaker and painter, a master of etching and book illustration, a representative of the academic movement, and one of the leading exponents of sentimentalism in 18th-century German art.
The artist's father was a merchant, a descendant of a noble family. His mother came from a family of Swiss Huguenots. The young Daniel, continuing the family tradition, began working as a merchant. At the age of 17, he went to Berlin for a commercial apprenticeship, where he spent most of his life. Towards the end of his career, he became the director of the Prussian Academy of Arts (Preußische Akademie der Künste).
In the 1750s, the artist developed an interest in painting, and later in printmaking, becoming one of the leading book illustrators. Between 1770 and 1774, together with Johann Bernhard Basedow, the founder of the philanthropic movement in education, he worked on the four-volume publication "Elementary Textbook for Young People" ("Elementarwerk für die Jugend"). Chodowiecki created over 100 illustrations for it using the copper engraving technique, including some dedicated to the Crusades.
In 1781, the artist produced 12 illustrations for a play by Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann entitled "No More Than Six Dishes" ("Nicht mehr als sechs Schüsseln"). This comedy, with its strongly social-critical undertones, is considered one of the earliest outstanding dramatic works in German bourgeois literature.
Around 2,000 engravings by Chodowiecki on various subjects, executed in the techniques of etching and copper engraving, have survived to this day. One of his contemporaries wrote that, were it not for Chodowiecki's illustrations, countless books would never have found their readers. The artist created a large number of painted and graphic portraits, as well as genre scenes of burgher life, mostly executed in pen and ink. The total number of the artist's surviving drawings amounts to around 4,000.
Daniel Chodowiecki's works are held in Germany – at the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) in Berlin, the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt; in Poland – at the National Museum in Gdańsk; in Ukraine – at Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery, Vasyl Stefanyk Lviv National Scientific Library of Ukraine and the Kharkiv Art Museum, as well as in museums in Washington, Madrid and London.
Object description
The engraving was published in "Becker's Almanach für 1800". However, information about the author – August Wahlmann is missing. It is possible that he is not the author of the literary work, but rather a person connected to the character in the engraving. The focus of the composition is a female figure standing near a foliage-decorated couch on which a man is lying. The woman is dressed in an antique tunic, a lute is slung over her shoulder, and her eyes are bound with a kerchief. This was how the allegory of Hope or Fortune was depicted. The man, seeking salvation, has stretched out his hand towards the woman. His figure is lost on the bed among the leaves. In contrast, the female figure is firm and steadfast, much like the straight tree trunks depicted on the right.
Prints of this engraving are held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Dresden State Art Collections, the British Museum and the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) of the National Museums in Berlin.
Inscriptions
Below the image, the title of the work – "Benno". In the bottom left corner of the print, there is an engraved artist's signature: "D. Chodowiecki fec". Written by hand in pencil below are the gallery inventory numbers.
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

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