Daniel Chodowiecki

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cartoon etching by Chodowieki, 1781, on the Partition of Poland

Graphic Artist Daniel Niklaus Chodowiecki, (1726-1801), was a painter and printmaker, who is most famous as an etcher, and was director of the Berlin Academy of Art. Daniel Chodowiecki, a long-time Berliner until his death in 1801, was born in Danzig (now Gdańsk in Poland), on October 16, 1726.

He always proudly remembered his Polish and Huguenot ancestry, as his father, Gottfried Chodowiecki was Polish and his mother, born in Switzerland, was a Huguenot. 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 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 February 7, 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.

Portrait of Daniel Chodowiecki, painted posthumously by Adolph von Menzel in 1859

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, speaking Polish, 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. In a letter to Józef Łęcki, the Polish astronomer, he wrote: "I consider it to be a honour to be a true Pole, even though I am now living in Germany" ^[1]. 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 her funeral. He describes and illustrates towns and people in Pomerania and Prussia on the way.

Daniel Chodowiecki is buried at the Französischer Friedhof in Berlin.