Carl Wilhelm Kolbe (1759-1835) was born in Berlin but spent most of his life working in Dessau (east-central modern Germany), except for a brief interlude from 1805-08 when he travelled to Zurich, Switzerland. He received a commission from the family of the painter poet Salomon Gessner (1730-88) to make prints after bodycolour (gouache) drawings Gessner had made in the decade before his death. Kolbe later described the experience as ‘among the happiest of my life’. This exhibition features impressions of the 25 plates Kolbe etched, as issued in their six separate parts between 1805 and 1811, and an additional proof impression of one of the plates. All the prints were acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2014.

In 1798, at a relatively late age, Kolbe enrolled as an art student at the Berlin Academy of Art. Back in Dessau in 1795, he accepted a teaching position at the Hauptschule a new art school for craftsmen, but his big break came in 1798 when he was appointed Hofkupferstecher (Court Engraver) to Leopold III, Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau (1740-1817), a post he retained until his retirement in 1828. He became known as one of the most individual and accomplished of printmakers associated with German Romanticism. This is the term given to the great cultural flowering of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in German-speaking countries, informed by momentous political, social and intellectual revolutions. In January 1805 Kolbe asked Prince Franz von Anhalt for permission to spend one and a half years in Zurich so that he might be able to produce etchings after a series of drawings by Salomon Gessner. Gessner was the first imaginative writer in the German language to achieve international fame. In 1756 and 1772 he had published collections of Idylls, written in rhythmic prose instead of verse. Critics admired his natural language and his pastoral subjects; the sentiments of shepherds and his other characters corresponded to a general longing for natural innocence. To persuade his patron of the success of the venture, Kolbe submitted an impression of Le pêcheur, after one of the drawings which had been sent to him from Zurich. Gessner’s family had preserved 20 of Salomon’s drawings in a cabinet as a sort of shrine. Tourists were charged an admission

fee to see the cabinet, and after 1802 they could read descriptions of the works in a catalogue, S. Gessners Studien und Kunskwerk (1802/3), written by Gessner’s brother-in-law Johann Heinrich Heidegger (1738-1823). It was in the introduction that Heidegger proposed finding a skilful printmaker to translate the drawings into etchings. The commission from the Gessner family was therefore an acknowledgement of Kolbe’s renown as Gessner’s spiritual successor. On 3 June 1805 Kolbe received permission for the leave of absence and the assurance that he would be able to resume his position in Dessau upon his return. Before leaving for Zurich, Kolbe etched two more plates after drawings belonging to Princess Amalie von Anhalt, entitled Chloe and Damon et Phillis. These three plates, with the addition of a fourth, La fontaine dans le bois, completed after his arrival in Zurich, would form the first part (‘Premier Cahier’) of the set ‘Collection des tableaux en gouache et des dessins de Salomon Gessner’, issued in 1805 by Heinrich Gessner, who had commissioned the set of prints. Four loose impressions of each plate, with interleaving tissues, were contained within a blue paper cover (see image below).

Kolbe produced etchings after most of the Gessner family’s drawings and added a further nine in the possession of other collectors, to arrive at a total of 25 plates. The next two parts were issued in 1806, and the following three in 1807, 1809 and 1811, all in matching blue paper wrappers, also containing four or five plates. From the second part onwards, Kolbe amended the lettering on the wrappers, adding his title, ‘Member of the Royal Berlin Art Academy’.

HHHHONEY FROM MANY FLOWEONEY FROM MANY FLOWEONEY FROM MANY FLOWEONEY FROM MANY FLOWERSRSRSRS Carl Wilhelm Kolbe and Salomon Gessner’s Idylls

The Fitzwilliam Museum

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The title-plate to the set, printed in 1811, was dedicated to Maria Feodorovna, Empress Consort of Russia (1759-1828) (‘Sa Majesté l’Impératrice Douairière de toutes des Russies’), and featured a medallion portrait of Salomon Gessner by Johann Heinrich Lips (1758-1817).

Gessner’s pastoral images with idyllic settings and figures were much admired by contemporaries and viewed as the perfect complement to his idyllic poetry. The subjects were perfectly suited to Kolbe’s extraordinary etching technique, with its fine control over depth of the etching to create subtle shifts of light and shade that evoke the idyllic atmosphere of the drawings.

Gessner, a self-taught artist, also produced three series of etched landscapes and illustrated his poems with figure compositions and landscape vignettes. He imparted the benefit of his experience to younger artists in his text ‘A Letter on Landscape Painting’, published in 1770, which explained how the aspiring artist might arrive at an individual style through the study of Old Masters and of nature. He wrote that he himself began simply by imitating nature, but that this led him to become overly involved in detail, and so he set himself the task of looking at a sequence of the 'best masters'. He described this method as sipping ‘honey from many flowers’. An English translation of this ‘Letter’ follows on the next page.

Collection des tableaux en gouache et des dessins de Salomon Gessner, gravés à l’eau forte par Guil. Kolbe

The Fitzwilliam Museum’s set is rare as originally issued in this edition. It is more commonly found in the reprint of 1811 bound in one volume. The condition of the wrappers and the prints of the set displayed here show no effects of mounting, display

or cleaning, indicating that it has probably lain dormant in or around Zurich since its creation. Part one, published 1805 Le pêcheur La fontaine dans le bois Damon et Phillis idille Chloe idille Part two, published 1806 La fontaine en arcadie Le bain Grec La fête champêtre La promenade sur l’eau Part three, published 1806 Danse de jeunes garçons Le concert champetre Le temple Le soir Part four, published 1807 La recolte des pommes La grotte Le bosquet La cascade Part five, published 1809 La rêveuse Le bois Le souhait ou la solitude poétique Le pont rustique Part six, published 1811 La conversation au bain Apollon et Daphne La cabane des pêcheurs Sacrifice au dieu Pan La solitude Ulf Martens, Der Zeichner und Radierer C. W. Kolbe 1976, nos. 282- 306

Selected further reading:

Antony Griffiths & Frances Carey, German Printmaking in the Age of Goethe (London: British Museum, 1994)

Anna Schultz, 'Trees have turned me into an artist': The graphic work of Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, in G. Batrum (ed.) German Romantic prints and drawings (London: British Museum, 2011), pp. 172-215.

In German:

Bernhard von Waldkirch, 'Der Weidenstamm und die Idylle. Carl Wilhelm Kolbe in Zürich 1085-1808’ in in Idyllen in gesperrter landschaft (Munich: Hirmer, 2010) pp. 205 – 223.

Carl Wilhelm Kolbe d. Ä (1759-1835) - Künstler, Philologe, Patriot (Petersburg: M. Imhof, 2009)

Produced to accompany an exhibition in the Charrington Print Room at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 14 March – 10 September 2017.

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A letter from M. Gessner to M. Fuselin, author of the History of the Swiss Painters, on landscape painting.1 Taken from The Works of Salomon Gessner, translated from the German. Liverpool, printed by J. M'Creery for T Cadell, Junr and W. Davies, London, 1802. Dear Sir, You are of opinion that an account of the route I have taken and the means I have pursued, to acquire some proficiency in the arts of painting and design, at a time of life little favourable to the attainment of great success, might not prove an useless or uninteresting work. How valuable and instructive would such a sketch be, executed by some of out most eminent artists: what an advantage we should derive from contemplating their difficulties, and the means by which they surmounted them: from minutely observing the course of their studies, and tracing the path by which they at length arrived at the excellence and perfection which distinguished them. We might not indeed meet in these simple recitals those profound researches which abound in the writings of the learned and unpracticed cognoscenti, but the artist and the scholar would here find the resources and information which experience alone can give. How interesting, (for example) are the writings of Lairesse; who, after having attained the highest degree of excellence in his professions, bequeathed to the world the history of his progress and proficiency in the art:2 and how invaluable is the work of Mengs, which in a few lines contains more just reflections on the principles of painting, than are to be found in folios produced by meaner authors.3 If he does not always express himself in the language of a philosopher, yet how much more valuable are his remarks as an artist: and the energy, the pure taste, and the spirit of research and observation that pervade them, are such as could only be expected from one of the greatest artists of his age and country But to return to myself: I am almost afraid to attempt the performance of a promise, to which I

1 Johann Caspar Füssli (1707-82), Swiss portait painter. The letter was published by Füssli in his 'Geschichte der besten Künstler in der Schweitz nebst ihren Bildnissen', III Zurich 1770, pp.xxxvi to lxiv and translated into English as early as 1776. 2 Gérard de Lairesse (1741-1711), painter, printmaker and art theorist, whose influential Grondiegginge der teekenkonst ('Foundations of Drawing') was published in 1701 and Het groot schilderboeck ('Great book of painting') in 1710. 3 Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), celebrated painter and close friend of Winckelmann, see fn. 27. Published Gedanken über die Schönheit ('Reflections upon Beauty and Taste') in 1762.

anticipate so many obstacles in my circumstances and occupations. I fear to appear trifling and superficial: but in that case I shall only have troubled you with a tiresome and insipid epistle, which may be thrown aside with other letters of the same character and consequence, and need not be retained, even by your friendly partiality, to disgrace its situation, and prove the only useless and uninteresting part of a valuable and important work. You know I was not intended either by fortune or situation for an artist: nor did I in my early youth indicate any marked inclination for the pursuit: for though I was continually occupied in scribbling or daubing, these ill directed attempts could merely be termed the amusements of a child, and were without object, and without use. I made no progress: my taste declined; thus my best years passed away, without my having even discovered whether I possessed the power and talents requisite for succeeding in this art: yet the beauties of nature, and the correct imitations of that great original, made constantly the most vivid impressions on my heart: but my inclination for the art was still only an undefinable sensation, unconnected with any knowledge of its principles: and the delight with which I contemplated the beauties of nature, led me to another mode of describing and expressing them, which, while it required less mechanic industry and practice, exacted the same lively sensibility, and the same minute attention to her charms. A select collection of paintings in the possession of my father-in-law,4 awakened and renewed in me the passion for design: and toward my thirtieth year I attempted to attain a proficiency in this delightful art, which might entitle me to the indulgence, and it might be, to the approbation of artists and connoisseurs. My natural inclination led mt to landscapes: and I sought with ardour the means of excelling in this species of design. I thought, (like many other young artists) that nature was the best and only model; and I determined to draw after nature. But I soon found that my precision in copying from this master, led me astray: that by these minute details, I destroyed the effect of the whole. I had not yet caught the manner, which without being servile or slight, preserves the true character of objects. My fore-grounds were overlooked and crowded with trifling objects: my trees were dryly designed, and not detached in bold and stroking masses: the whole was disturbed by a labour without taste. In short my eye was not accustomed to consider nature as a picture: I was ignorant of that address which augments or diminishes in the parts which

4 J. C. Heidegger (1710-78), statesman in Zurich. Gessner married into this influential family in 1761, and left his father's bookseller business to join his brother-in-law, Heinrich Heidegger, in becoming partners in a firm that became Orell, Gessner, Füssli & Cie in 1770.

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art cannot equal. I found that I must form myself upon the works of the best masters. Is not the error into which I fell, the fault also of those ancient artists, who practiced the art in its childhood, and had consequently no good models to form their taste upon? They attended so exactly to nature, that the smallest objects in their works are finished and heightened with as much care as the most important ones: their pictures consequently lost the effect they laboured so much to obtain. Later artists who observed these defect, endeavoured to avoid them, and made themselves acquainted with the rules of beauty and variety in the disposition of their objects; of masses, and of effects, of light and shade, &c. I employed myself therefore in studying the most eminent masters: and above all, in attaching myself to the best works only: for I perceived, that in models, the most prejudicial quality, and the most to be avoided, is mediocrity: the bad strike and disgust, and the eye readily distinguishes their faults; while those who are neither good or bad deceive us, by presenting a dangerous and flattering facility. It is for this reason, that engraving, which may contribute so greatly to the progress of the arts when it is employed on subjects judiciously chosen, may become prejudicial by the indifferent works it multiples without number. How many productions of that art, which have required the labour of years to perfect them, have not deserved, in the first instance, the work of a day. It is a terrible loss of time in the instruction of young artists to detain them, though even for a short time, in studying after any but the very first masters: they acquire no taste for the really beautiful: the mediocre in the art becomes familiar and supportable to their eye; and the ease with which they are sometimes able to surpass their originals, nourishes in their bosom an ignorant conceit and pride, which is an insuperable bar in their progress to excellence. Let a young artist be accustomed to study the heads of Raphael,5 and the sweet insipid countenances exhibited in their works of more modern painters, will be disagreeable and insupportable to him: while is he has been used to copy from some fashionable artists, and is afterwards employed in portraying the simple and sublime excellence of an Apollo, or an Antinous,6 he will made every-day people worse, or bad dancers, of them: and what is worse, will not be

5 In drawing instruction books, such as Benjamin Ralph's The School of Raphael; or, the student's guide to expression, first published in 1759, comprising heads of figures from the cartoons by Raphael bought by King William and Mary, housed in their gallery at Hampton Court. 6 Gessner references well-known figures from Raphael’s paintings. Antinous was the boy with whom the Emperor Hadrian fell in love, and who drowned in the Nile in c. 130 AD, adored for his beauty, portrayed with thick curly locks and downward gaze. Apollo is the centre point of Raphael's fresco 'Mount Parnassus' in the Vatican Palace.

sensible how totally he has failed in his delineation of them. My first rule in following the best masters was, to pass from one principal part to another, without staying to attempt at once all the numberless details I perceived in each of them: trees were the first things I essayed: and I chose for my model, Waterloo,7 of whose works I found an excellent collection in the cabinet I have mentioned. The more I studied this artist, the more I found in his landscape the true character of nature. I practised his manner till I acquired an ease and felicity in expressing my own ideas: I accustomed myself at the same time to work after Swanefeld8 and Berghem;9 acquiring by this mixed practice more variety in my style, and avoiding the forming what is called a manner. For rocks, I chose the bold masses of Berghem and Salvator Rosa,10 as my models; for designing from nature, and distinguishing her true character, I preferred Mayer,11 Ermels,12 and Hackert.13 Lorrain instructed me in the disposition and harmony of fore-ground, and in the representing of soft fading distances.14 And I had recourse to Wouvermans,15 for those gently flowing slopes, which covered with a tender verdure, and illuminated by a mild and moderate light, have no fault, but that of appearing sometimes too downy and tufted. Sandy or rocky heights, overgrown with shade and underwood, I copied from Berghem. In returning after these preparations to nature, I found my efforts much less laborious. I knew now, how to produce the effects I admired: I observed a thousand beauties which had escaped my eye

7 Anthonie Waterloo (1609-90), acclaimed painter, publisher, draughtsman and etcher; best known for his depictions of trees and forests. 8 Herman van Swanefelt (1600-55), landscape artist and prolific printmaker. It is thought that he may have stayed with Claude Lorrain in Rome in the mid-1630s, see fn. 14 below. 9 Nicolaes Berchem (1620-83), Dutch painter and printmaker active in Haarlem and Amsterdam, who specialised in the Italianate pastoral landscape. 10 Salvator Rosa (1615-73), Italian painter, printmaker and poet; his savage landscapes earned him the nickname ‘wild man of the Baroque era’. 11 Felix Meyer (1653-1713), Swiss artist. He executed a series of landscape etchings with ruined monuments and classical figures. 12 Johann Franz Ermels (1641-93), German painter and printmaker; also etched series of Italianate landscapes with ruins. 13 Most likely Jakob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807), the most famous German landscape painter of his generation, rather than his three brothers, Carl (1740-96), Johann Gottlieb (1744-73) or Georg (1755-1805), also landscape painter and etchers. 14 Claude Lorrain (1600-82), lived in Rome and became recognised as the greatest landscape painter of the 17th century. 15 Philips Wouwerman (or Wouwermans) (1619-68), Dutch painter mostly of landscape, hunting or battle scenes.

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before; I had often sought in vain, in my former walks, objects completely fit for picturesque design: but now I distinguished in almost every object, some parts fit for imitation; I saw no shade that had not some branch well-disposed, some mass of foliage well-grouped, some part of a trunk of striking singularity; a detached stone gave me an idea of a mass of rock; I exposed it to the sun in the point of view that best agreed with my design, and discovered the most brilliant effects in the chiaro-obscuro, the demi-tines, and the reflections. But in studying nature in this manner, I was obliged to be on my guard against being led away by singularity: I sought for what was noble and simple, and endeavoured to avoid exaggeration: I refrained from heaping fantastic forms together in my landscapes, even when I perceived them accidentally in nature, and remained steady to that probability, in which the truth of imitation consists. My studies after nature were careful but not finished designs. The more interesting any part of my subject appeared, the more I finished it at my first attempt. Many artists content themselves with taking a hasty sketch of any pleasing picture which nature presents them, and lay it by, intending to finish it at their leisure. But the fleeting images so slightly impressed on the imagination are not to be recalled, and instead of the characteristic of the object they admire, their drawing only exhibits their accustomed manner and style, and loses that truth and nature which is not to be supplied, either by the magic of colouring, or the effects of the chiaroscuro. The eye may be delighted for a moment, by these latter; but soon missing the real and essential beauties, it will turn from the work in disgust. But when I wished to employ my detached studies made after nature in the completion of a whole, I found myself intimidated and embarrassed. I fell into factitious details, which would not harmonise with the simplicity and truth of those parts selected from nature. I could not find in my landscapes the great, the noble, and striking effects of the whole. I was obliged then, to have recourse to those matters, who have excelled in composition. I found in the landscaped of Everdingen,16 that rural simplicity which pleases, even amid scenes where the greatest variety reigns. In his designs, I found impetuous torrents, craggy rocks overgrown with bush-wood and tangled shrubs; and smiling retreats, in which contented poverty has fixed its rural abode. Boldness, and taste, and originality were conscious in all his works. Yet I did not take him for my only role model. Dietrich,17 I thought,

16 Allart van Everdingen (1621-75), Dutch painter and printmaker. Over 160 prints are attributed to him, mostly etchings. 17 Christian Wilhelm Dietrich (1712-74), German painter, etcher and child prodigy; in charge of the

afforded better examples of the manner in which rocks ought to be painted. The pieces he has composed of this kind are of such excellence, that one is ready to pronounce them to be Everdingen’s; but to agree, that he has surpassed himself. I admire the dignity of Swanefeld’s designs, and the striking effect of his execution. I studied his reflected lights, which fell in so picturesque a manner on the large masses of his shades. The bold genius of Salvator Rosa, astonished and delighted me; and Rubens, charmed by the brilliancy of his colouring, the originality of his compositions and the bold choice of his subjects. I studied all these masters, I made slight copies from their designs, and thus formed a collection of their best ideas. But the two Poussins and Claud Lorrain,18 at last possessed me entirely. It was in their works, that I found the truly great and beautiful : not a servile imitation of nature, but a selection of all the most simple and beautiful objects she affords. A poetic genius, united in the two Poussins, all this is great and noble. They carry us back to those times, for which history, and especially poetry, fill us with veneration. They transport us into those countries, where nature is not wild, but luxuriant; and where, under the happiest climate, every plant acquires its utmost perfection. The buildings which adorn the pictures of these celebrated artists, are in the true style of ancient architecture: and the figures by which they are peopled, have all the grace and dignity of demeanour, which our imaginations, warmed to enthusiasm by the history of their great actions, attributed to the Greeks and Romans. Grace and tranquility [sic] reign throughout all the scenes which the magic pencil of Claud Lorrain has created: the view of his pictures awakens in us that same enthusiasm, that same tranquil but delicious emotion, with which we contemplate a beautiful and extended prospect in nature. His plains are luxuriant without confusion, and variegated without disorder: every object sooths us with the idea of repost and tranquility. The scene of his landscapes is placed amid a delightful soil, which lavishes on its inhabitants its bounteous and spontaneous gifts; under a sky, ever bright and serene, beneath whose mild influence all things bloom and flourish. I accustomed myself to copy from memory the principle parts that had struck me in the works of these great masters. I sometimes copied one of their works, and I preserve these essays, as they bring to my mind the route I have taken, and guides who have conducted me. In this manner, I acquired the useful habit of tracing, in order to remember

painting collection in Dresden from 1748. Knew both Mengs and Winckelmann, see fn. 3 & 28. 18 Nicolas Poussin and his brother-in-law Gaspard Dughet (1615-75), who studied with him in the early 1630s, and whose surname he adopted. Gaspard’s landscapes generally more rugged. Reputation of both very high in the 18th century, particularly in England and were inspiration for the great tradition of the classical or ideal landscape.

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them better, the compositions and plans of those works which have particularly engaged my attention. Perhaps this labour may be thought superfluous, as the engraving made after those beautiful pictures, contain their exact representations. But the pains I have taken in copying them myself, have impressed a more durable idea upon my mind. How many collections of prints and drawings resemble those large library, from which their possessors reap not the least advantage; while the artist who forms a cabinet of design for himself reaps all the advantage of his industry in the improvement it affords, and possesses at the same time a collection of the utmost value to him. Yet when I had applied myself long to the study of particular masters, I found too great a degree of timidity oppress my native powers. Occupied by their beauties, and impressed with the humblest idea of my own talents, I despaired of equalling [sic], or even approaching the excellence they had attained. My imagination, filled by their images, and occupied by their scenery, lost its inventive powers. I observed how imitation suppresses the warmth of genius and the boldness of fancy. The truth of this reflection is instanced by the celebrated Frey,19 and indeed by the best engravers in general: who accustomed to copy the ideas of others, and to express them with the most scrupulous precision, lose that freedom and play of the imagination, without which there can be no originality of invention. Startled by these ideas, I abandoned my models; I forsook my guides, and delivered myself up to my own ideas. I prescribed myself subjects, and endeavoured to discover those which might best suit my feeble talents. I observed what parts were most difficult to me, and what required the most study and attention. My difficulties now began to disappear; I gained courage; and I felt that my imagination expanded; and that fancy, like the other powers of the mind, is to be encreased [sic] by patience, and strengthened by exertion. I had established it as a rule for myself, never to be unprovided with materials for designing; I carried them always with me, not only in my journeys or walks, but in the house, or the town. Many and important idea is forgotten or lost, because one is too indolent to fetch from another room, the materials necessary for fixing and impressing it. Often, in contemplating a picture or an engraving, some valuable idea or remark occurs, which is afterwards suppressed or forgotten, amid the different impressions made by the variety of objects we discover as we gaze longer. I seldom failed on these occasions, to fix at the moment, the idea which would so soon have faded from my imagination; and continually experienced, that a thought conceived in the first warmth, and an effect with which we are struck at the first view, is never

19 Jacob Frey (1681-1752), engraver and publisher who lived and worked in Rome.

so well expressed, as by the sketch made at that instant. And here I will mention an advantage which may be sometimes derived from studying the works of an indifferent artist; though I cannot recommend the practice to any except those whose taste is already formed. An indifferent picture will often suggest an idea, which may be heightened and improved to become of value. Thus, in the poems of Ramler,20 we sometimes meet a thought borrowed from an inferior writer, improved into a striking beauty, by his skill in heightened, and his judgement in applying it. The works of Merian,21 to whom little justice has been done, contain detached beauties, selected with the greatest skill from nature, and only disguised, by the tame and insipid style of his execution. Give to his trees and grounds the lightness of Waterloo; insert among his rocks and the whole of his compositions, more variety; and you will see brilliant effects arise, whose splendour and harmony will do honour to genius, and of which the disposition and ground-work was all to be found in Merian.. I must not omit to recommend a practice, which I have found useful from my own individual experience. I mean that of studying the history of the art, and of artists. By this we extend our circle of knowledge, we become acquainted with the various revolutions which have taken place in the science, and are taught its principle objects and designs. It is pleasing and interesting to inform ourselves of the fate of those whose works we have admired. When we observe the respect with which these great master and their works are mentioned, our ideas of the importance of the art are extended and heightened: when we contemplate the unwearied industry with which they toiled to acquire the excellence they at last attained, when we observe the indefatigable diligence by which they surmounted the difficulties that opposed their course, our emulation is called forth, and our resolutions to exertion strengthened. Their very errors are instructive to us: and their misfortunes afford many a moral lesson, which, by impressing on young artists the necessity of prudence and of virtue, may tend to secure their temporal and eternal happiness I must observe too, that poetry is the true sister of painting, and that the artist should not fail to study those delightful works of the poets, which will improve his taste, refine and enlarge his ideas, and enrich his imagination with a store of the most beautiful imagery. The poet and the painter draw

20 Karl Wilhelm Ramler (1725-89), German poet known personally by Gessner. He advised Gessner to concentrate on writing idylls, stating that the genre was particularly well suited to Gessner’s character and the reality of the idyllic existence living in Switzerland. 21 Most likely Matthäus Merian I (1593-1650), who engraved topographical plates and town prospects.

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from the same source; both are governed by the same laws; an exquisite sense of the truly beautiful in nature, must direct each in the choice of every object and image introduced into his work. How many painters would chuse [sic] their subjects with more taste; how many poets would give more truth, more life and animation to their descriptions, if the knowledge of these two arts was more frequently united. The ancients, and especially the Greeks, whose language is so poetical, were unacquainted with the facility of modern writers, who when they have heaped together a number of unconnected images and ideas, presume to imagine they have excelled in picturesque description. Webbe’s “Enquiry into the beauties of painting,”22 which exemplifies the beauties of this art by passages drawn from the greatest writers of antiquity, exhibits the proof of the fact he was so anxious to establish, that the poets of those ages had a true knowledge of the beautiful and sublime in the arts, and had observed with minute attention, every thing most interesting in inanimate, as well as animated nature. Their conceptions of beauty and excellence must have differed widely from our modern writers, who imitate Durer, in painting the Graces; or Rubens, when they attempt to express that ideal beauty which should characterize a goddess, or present the highest degree of mortal loveliness. But to return to my subject: I pity the artist who can read Thomson without emotion, and contemplate uninspired, the beautiful pictures exhibited in his works. I have found in the writings of this great master, descriptions which might have been copied from the works of the most eminent painters, and which the artist might with ease transpose again on the canvass. His pictures are not more beautiful than they are various; they are sometimes finished with the pastoral simplicity of Berghem, Potter,23 or Roos;24 they sometimes exhibit the grace and amenity of Lorrain, or are characterised by the noble and sublime of Poussin’s style, or the wildness and melancholy of Salvator Rosa’s And here let me seize the opportunity of paying a tribute to the memory of a poet now almost

22 Daniel Webb, Irish writer. His Inquiry into the Beauties of Painting was published in 1760. 23 Paulus Potter (1625-54), Dutch painter and

etcher, renowned for his portrayals of animals. He was also a major influence on Kolbe, who named one of Potter's prints as the inspiration for some of his most spectacular prints of giant vegetation, which he called 'Kräuterblätter' ('vegetable sheets') 24 Johann Heinrich Roos (1631-85), founder of a dynasty of German artists. Roos trained in Amsterdam and specialised in idyllic pastoral scenes, in the tradition of Italianate Dutch artists including Berchem.

forgotten: - Brockes,25 which marked out a distinct species of poetry for himself; who followed nature in her most minute details; whose mind was exquisitely sensible to every natural beauty and charm, and whose fine feelings were wrought upon by the most trifling circumstances. A plant, covered with dew, and illuminated by a bright ray of the sun, was sufficient to inspire him; his descriptions are often too artful, and too laboured; but his works in general are a rich magazine of ideas and images borrowed from nature, and copied by a most faithful pencil. They remind us of objects and of circumstances which we have ourselves remarked, and which we recognise again with encreased [sic] pleasure Must we, then, be students and philosophers, in order to become painters? Will many an artist ask with a scornful smile. No: my advice is only of importance to those, who wish to give greatness and sublimity to the style of their works. Without any of the improvements in taste and refinement which I have suggested, an artist may excel in representing a Dutch fair, or a scene of vulgar revelry and debauchery: he may even possess all the magic of colouring, and exhibit all the enchanting effects of light and shade: but he must not aspire to charm the mind and touch the heart; or expect more than the tribute of the eye, for which is merely the work of the hand. Such, my friend, are the few and simple observations which my memory yields; which my studies, and the plans I had prescribed to myself, have afforded. Others must determine how far I have succeeded in my art: but their decisions will not teach me to believe that the method I have recommended is not a short and good one. Though my situation and circumstances may have prevented my farther progress in the arts, I feel, with the highest respect for me, how much reflection and practice is necessary to the attainment of superiority and excellence in it. If the artist does not glow with the warmest passion for his art; if the hours which he devotes to it are not the happiest of his life; if he does not seek with the most decided preference, the society of cognoscenti and artists; if he does not in the night, dream of it, and in the morning awake with new enthusiasm to pursue it – if he does not paint for true fame, for the applause of real judges, and for prosperity, his works will be forgotten with the trifles they have imitated, and will go out of fashion with the rest of the furniture which adorns the

25 Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680-1747), German poet of the early Enlightenment. His large collection of poems, Irdisches Vergnüngen in Gott (1721-48), were immensely popular in Germany during Gessner’s childhood. Brockes’ poetry, with its message about the world created as beautiful and useful to mankind, appealed to Gessner’s feeling for nature.

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modish apartments in which they may be present hung. Though this letter has already exceeded the bound which I had prescribed to it, I must communicate to you, and to the public, a wish which I have long formed, and of which I conceive the fulfilment would contribute greatly to the advancement of the art of design. I have heard young artists complain with the most sincere regret, that their improvement has been delayed by bad regulations adopted at first, their time misspent in wearying all ill-directed application, and their genius cramped, and their ardour abated by bad taste of their age or country. I could wish, that books of elements were composed for the use of scholars and masters. We have some excellent works; but of these, some are too expensive; and none are sufficiently simple or practicable for beginners. In the work I propose, the fundamental rules of the art should be first laid down with all the perspicuity and precision possible, and afterwards applied to different examples. These particular examples should be selected from engravings made after the best pictures of the most eminent masters; and care should be taken to prefer those which are the most common and the least costly, in order that the young artist might have a chance of meeting them in collections, or of purchasing them for himself. In every branch of the art, the most certain method should be explained; the principle works, and the most eminent masters in that style, pointed out. The elements of Preysler are almost generally adopted in Germany; and his harsh discipline is very generally imposed on young beginners.26 Yet his outlines are frequently incorrect, and the character of his heads in general vulgar and insipid. The elements of designing which have appeared in France and in other countries where that art is practiced, many are deceived by the boldness with which they are offered as complete instructions, but will always be found of little value to the young artist; as in them the rules of outline are neglected: and in works of this nature, correctness and precision are of the greatest consequence. I have mentioned before how advantageous the study of works, which treat of the art, and of artists, will be found to young students. The elementary treatise I propose ought therefore to contain an introduction, or reference to the best writing of this kind: nothing in short, should be omitted in it that could render it a general, and well-known manual to young artists: that could make it useful and improving to those who have not the benefit of instructions or could lighten the labour of explanation to those who attempt to teach.

26 Daniel Preisler (1666-1787), director of the academy of painting in Nuremberg. His book on drawing, Die durch theorie erfunderne practik ('Through theory to practice’) was used almost exclusively in schools of drawing in Germany.

My second wish is, that a collection should be formed of descriptions of the best pictures in every style of painting: which should be examined into, and criticised according to the best and strictest rules of the art. It would be difficult it is true, to extend these criticisms to the colouring: but the harmony of the chiaro-obscura might be discussed; and the observations on the connexion [sic] that it has with colouring, which supply this defect in part, and could not fail to interest and instruct the artist and the connoisseur. It would be essential in the plan I have proposed, to choose none but the best compositions of every age; and to dwell on those only in which the character of the time, and the school is particularly marked. The descriptions and criticisms we find in the treatise of Boydell,27 in the writings of Winkelmann,28 Hagedorn,29 Richardson,30 and others, may serve as models for his design. The criticisms on the altar-piece of the Chev. Mengs at Dresden, inserted in the third volume of the Bibliothèque des Belles Lettres, et des Beaux Arts, is a master-piece which displays a profound and accurate knowledge of all parts of the art.31 Need I again remark how useful such a work would be? To those who imagined it would easily be executed, I must however suggest, that it could not be of the general use and importance I describe, unless performed by one of our greatest masters: in short unless it were the production of a Hagedorn, a Dietrich, a Oesers,32 or a Casanova.33

27 Boydell’s Collection of Prints published in 1763, with commentaries by Benjamin Ralph. 28 Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-68), one of the founders of the modern discipline of art history; his ground-breaking Gedanken über die Nachhamung der Griechischen Werke (Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works) appeared in 1755. 29 Christian von Hagedorn (1712-80), general director of arts, academies and galleries in the Electorate in Dresden; his Betrachtungen über die Mahlerey was published in 1762. 30 An Essay on the theory of painting (1715) by painter Jonathan Richardson (1667-1745) was immensely popular and widely distributed. 31 A reference to the journal Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften, to which Winckelmann contributed critical reviews, see fn. 28. 32 Adam Friedrich Oeser(1717-99), painter, etcher and sculptor and friend of Winckelmann. Other English translations of this Letter end with different names. One mentions 'Wattelet', refering to Claude-Henri Watelet (1718-86) a collector and amateur etcher, who published a didactic poem ‘Sur l’art de peindre’ in 1760, and to whom Gessner dedicated some of his etchings. 33 Giovanni Battista Casanova (1730-95). Studied under Dietrich (see fn. 17) and Mengs (fn. 3); etched plates for Winckelmann's Monumenti antichi inediti ('Unpublished monuments of antiquity')