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Meeting. An Illustration for A. Lafontaine's Work "Out of Pride and Love" ("Aus Stolz und Liebe von Lafontaine")

Daniel Chodowiecki

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-2838
Author: Daniel Chodowiecki
Name: Meeting. An Illustration for A. Lafontaine's Work "Out of Pride and Love" ("Aus Stolz und Liebe von Lafontaine")
Previous attributions: Parting
Country: Germany
Technique: etching
Material: paper
Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: history painting
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

An illustration for the work by the German sentimentalist writer August Heinrich Julius Lafontaine (1758–1831) (not to be confused with the French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine) "On Dignity and Love". The work forms part of the "Pocket Almanac for Sociable Leisure" for the year 1797 ("Almanach Taschenbuch zum geselligen Vergnügen für das Jahr 1797"), published alongside Lafontaine's text by Wilhelm Becker's publishing house. The engravings in this series highlighted the popularity of the writer's works, which placed great emphasis on moral values and profound emotions.
The composition depicts a couple in love – a knight in armour and a young woman – who have been reunited after a long separation. These are characters from Lafontaine's works – Egbert and Agnes (or Bertha in another version). The scene unfolds in a gloomy room with a vaulted ceiling, reminiscent of a hall in a Gothic castle. The room is dimly lit by a candle standing on the table to the left, creating a chiaroscuro effect. Next to the candlestick on the table lie a headdress with feathers and items of military or travelling kit. Behind the girl stands another woman with her arms spread wide in joy. She has presumably secretly led the knight to his beloved. The inscription beneath the image reveals their tender feelings: "Ach Egbert, ich wäre vergangen vor Schmerz, so wie ich jetzt sterben möchte vor Freude. Stolz u. Liebe v. A. La Fontaine. p. 116" – [Oh, Egbert, I nearly died of grief, just as I am now ready to die of joy / from A. La Fontaine. P. 116] .
This engraving is known, in particular, from the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Inscriptions

At the bottom right, beneath the image, the artist's signature and the date are engraved: "D. Chodowiecki del. u. sculpsit 1796". At the top, to the right of the frame, is the number "4".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Meeting. An Illustration for A. Lafontaine's Work "Out of Pride and Love" ("Aus Stolz und Liebe von Lafontaine")

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