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Capture of the Fortress of Gorcum on 17 September 1787. From the "History of the Dutch War" ("Geschichte des holländischen Krieges") Series

Daniel Chodowiecki

Basic information

ID: Г-IV-2847
Author: Daniel Chodowiecki
Name: Capture of the Fortress of Gorcum on 17 September 1787. From the "History of the Dutch War" ("Geschichte des holländischen Krieges") Series
Country: Germany
Technique: etching
Material: paper
Dimensions: 5 x 8.7 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

The historical background to the event dates back to the Batavian Revolution, when Dutch patriot-democrats rose up against the rule of William of Orange, the stadtholder of the Netherlands (the United Provinces). Prussia came to the aid of the Orangists, whose troops won one victory after another over the "patriots". The decisive event was the Prussian capture of the fortress of Gorcum (Gorinchem) on 17 September 1787. The "patriots" were not prepared to defend the fortress against a first-rate army and surrendered.
The artist has depicted the surrender of the fortress. In the foreground is a gathering of cavalrymen in typical European military uniform of the second half of the 18th century (characterised by tricorne hats and uniforms). One of them is General Knobelsdorf, Commander-in-Chief of the Prussian Army. The other is the commander of the fortress's defences, who, whilst seated on his horse, has placed his hand on his hat to remove it before the victor and declare his surrender. The scene takes place on a drawbridge in front of the city gate, above which an oval shield bears a heraldic emblem in the form of a vertical stripe with three diagonal crosses – the coat of arms of Amsterdam. Beyond the city walls, plumes of smoke can be seen, between which the tower of a Protestant church, topped with a weathercock, is visible.
The "History of the Dutch War" ("Geschichte des holländischen Krieges") series of illustrations was produced for contemporary pocket almanacs, in particular the "Berliner Genealogischer Kalender" and the "Göttinger Taschenkalender" for 1789.

Inscriptions

The number "6" appears above the border on the right. Below the image is the caption: "Einnahme von Gorcum den 17. Sept. 1787.".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery