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Banquet. From the "History of Brandenburg" Series

Daniel Chodowiecki

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-2709
Author: Daniel Chodowiecki
Name: Banquet. From the "History of Brandenburg" Series
Previous attributions: In the Tavern
Country: Germany
Technique: etching
Material: paper
Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.1 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: genre art
Provenance: Purchased from O. Bushel, 1977

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

One of the twelve engravings from the "Brandenburgische Geschichte" ("History of Brandenburg") series in the 1790 Berlin "Historisch-Genealogischer Calendar". It depicts both historical and everyday scenes. It was with this series that the artist began his work on pocket calendars.
The composition depicts a banquet scene involving a wealthy family, taking place in the background. However, the artist focuses his attention on the foreground, where a young man and a young woman are seated at a table. The young couple in love wear wreaths on their heads, symbolising youth and prosperity. In this way, the artist emphasises the contrast between formality and informality. The artist renders the interior details, highlighting the solid construction of the house – the ceiling, supported by sturdy wooden beams, and the floor, laid with slabs. Judging by the elegance of their attire, the young man and woman also belong to the aristocracy, although they are seated separately from the older generation.

Inscriptions

Below the image on the left, the artist's inscription is engraved: "D. Chodowiecki del. & sc. 1789". On the reverse in the centre, there is a text in pencil in German cursive, in Kurrent script: "vor Ueberarbeitung des Kreuzes vor den diagonalen Linien auf der Diele von der Thüre bis zum Tisch zwischen die Balken der Decke", presumably written by a collection keeper in the 19th–20th centuries. Below is the inventory number of the Lviv Picture Gallery.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Banquet. From the "History of Brandenburg" Series

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