Johann Adam Bernhard Ritter von Bartsch (17 August 1757 – 21 August 1821) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n scholar and artist. His catalogue of

old master print An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition. The term remains current in the art trade, and there is no easy alternative in English to distinguish the works of "fine art" produced in printmak ...

s is the foundation of print

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

, and he was himself a printmaker practicing

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

and

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

. Bartsch was born and died in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He joined the staff of the Royal Court Library in Vienna in 1777, after studying engraving at the Vienna Kupferstecheracademie, and became Head curator of the print collection in 1791. He was also an advisor to Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, who founded the collection of the

Albertina, Vienna The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as wel ...

, then as now the world's finest collection of

s. In the twentieth century the two collections were merged in the Albertina.

"Le Peintre Graveur"

Between 1803 and his death in 1821 Bartsch published in French in 21 volumes Le Peintre Graveur, a pioneering catalogue of

s by Dutch, Flemish, German, and Italian painter-engravers from the 15th to the 17th century. References to "Bartsch" normally mean this work. It has been reprinted five times, most recently in 1982. In 1821 he also published the ''Kupferstichkunde'' (The Art of Engraving) in German.

"The Illustrated Bartsch"

" The Illustrated Bartsch" ( Abaris Books, New York) is an English language illustrated version of "Le Peintre Graveur." (The original "Le Peintre Graveur" was unillustrated by technological necessity.) The "Illustrated Bartsch" General Editor was Walter L. Strauss. The project has been underway since 1978, and is projected to include at least 164 volumes. Most of the picture volumes are published; the accompanying text volumes, in effect complete new catalogue raisonnés, are taking longer. In fact only Bartsch's numbering is retained in full, although his original is often quoted. All the prints known to Bartsch are illustrated in the first 50 volumes. Prints not known to Bartsch, not listed by him or new attributions are listed in the companion and later volumes. It is often abbreviated to "TIB" in references. It (currently the images only) is available online to colleges and other institutions subscribing to

ARTstor Artstor is a nonprofit organization that builds and distributes the Digital Library, an online resource of more than 2.5 million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences, and Shared Shelf, a Web-based cataloging and image manageme ...

- essentially in US & Canada only.

Legacy

Bartsch established what has become the definitive numbering system, bearing his name (e.g. "Bartsch 17" or "B17"), for

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

etchings and the prints of many other artists, which is still used or at least referred to most subsequent and standard works in this field. His numbers list the works by category, roughly following the contemporary hierarchy of genres, except that self-portraits come first, followed by biblical subjects, then subjects of saints, allegories, and so on. In his lifetime, Bartsch executed over 500 plates from his own designs and from those of other masters. Many are attractive but he is not a major artist. His term

peintre-graveur Peintre-graveur () is a term probably invented and certainly popularized by the great scholar of the old master print, Adam Bartsch (Johann Adam Bernhard von Bartsch: 1757 - 1821, both Vienna). The term, meaning "painter-engraver", is intended to ...

or painter-engraver is also still in use to distinguish original from reproductive printmakers, especially in the period of the

(to about 1830).

References

*Dossi, Barbara; ''Albertina, The History of the Collection and its Masterpieces'', Prestel, 1999,

External links

About the ARTstor Illustrated Bartsch (on a subscription-only site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartsch, Adam Austrian printmakers Writers from Vienna Austrian etchers Austrian knights Austrian male writers 1757 births 1821 deaths Artist authors Rembrandt scholars