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

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n scholar and artist. His catalogue of

old master print An old master print (also spaced masterprint) is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition (mostly by Old Masters). The term remains current in the art trade, and there is no easy alternative in English to distingu ...

s, ''Le Peintre Graveur'' is the foundation of print

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

, and he was himself a printmaker practicing

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

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 type ...

. Bartsch was born and died in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. 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 catalogues 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- 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), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

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 A hierarchy of genres is any formalization which ranks different genres in an art form in terms of their prestige and cultural value. In literature, the Epic poetry, epic was considered the highest form, for the reason expressed by ...

, 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 18th-century Austrian scholars Scholars from the Austrian Empire 18th-century Austrian artists Artists from the Austrian Empire Austrian printmakers Writers from Vienna Austrian etchers Austrian male writers 1757 births 1821 deaths Artist authors Rembrandt scholars