79 - Daniel Chodowiecki (1726-1781)

Daniel Chodowiecki (1726-1781) Cabinet d'un peintre. Vers 1771. Eau-forte et burin. 227 x 176 [233 x 183 mm]. Engelmann 75. Très belle épreuve sur vergé. Fin long pli oblique en travers du feuillet (perceptible uniquement au verso). Marges étroites. Timbre AABM (Lugt 3075). " The explanatory dedication on this print is to Madame Henriette Ayrer, Chodowiecki's mother in Danzig, whom he did not see for thirty years after leaving his native city in 1743. Her request for a drawing of her son's family, who were quite unknown to her, was the ostensible reason for the composition in which Chodowiecki shows himself as both artist and observer of his wife, Jeanne Barez, and his children, Jeanne, Susette, Henriette, Isac Heinrich and Wilhelm, the elder son who followed his father in becoming a printmaker (1765-1805). Beyond this purely private purpose, the work had an almost iconic significance as an exemplification of the virtues of bourgeois family life in the latter half of the eighteenth century, deriving its inspiration from works such as Philippe Le Bas' engravings after Chardin's domestic interiors. From the outset, it was an image intended for public consumption which was immediately in demand among those who valued his work, such as the Augsburg artist, J. E. Haid (1739-1809) who in 1774 was expressing his regret to Chodowiecki at no longer being able to obtain a good impression of the subject... " (Antony Griffiths and Frances Carey, German Printmaking in the Age of Goethe, London, British Museum, 1994, n° 18).