Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch (December 9, 1779 – June 11, 1857) was a German

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, draughtsman, and etcher. Retzsch was born in the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

capital

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. He joined the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German language, German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institutio ...

in 1798 under Cajetan Toscani and Józef Grassi, later working autodidactically, copying the famous pictures of the Gemäldegalerie, among them a copy of the '' Sixtinian Madonna''. He was made a member of the Academy in 1817 and professor in 1824. The Cotta publishing house commissioned illustrations for

Johann Wolfgang Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on literary, political, and philosoph ...

's ''

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

'' (26 plates), which made him financially independent. Goethe liked his work, and he illustrated works by other famous authors, most notably

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

's ''Lied von der Glocke'' (43 plates), a ''

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

Gallery'' (80 plates), and

Bürger Bürger or Buerger is a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Gottfried August Bürger, German poet * Heinrich Bürger, German physicist and biologist * Heinrich Otto Wilhelm Bürger, German zoologist * Karl-Heinz Bürger, German S ...

's ''Ballads'' (15 plates). He also did oil paintings on classical subjects, and portraits. Many of his works were created in a house in the Lößnitz, with a view of the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

Valley. As a

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

maker, he was a member of the Saxon wine association from 1799 onwards. Retzsch died in Oberlössnitz/ Radebeul.

Notes

References

*''Das Winzerfest der Weinbaugesellschaft im Königreich Sachsen am 25.10.1840'', Meinhold & Söhne, Dresden *Neidhardt, H.J., ''Die Malerei der Romantik in Dresden'', Seemann Verlag. Leipzig, 1976 *H. Heine, '' Die Harzreise'', Ph. Reclam jun. Verlag Leipzig, 16th edn., 1961, p. 48 *Bäumel, J., ''Vom landesherrlichen Bacchus-Triumph zum Aufzug der "Hofewintzer"'', in: ''600 Jahre Hoflößnitz, historische Weingutsanlage'', S.125-139, M. Sandstein Verl. Dresden, 2001; Vogel, G.H., ''Vivat Bacchus, Bacchus lebe ...'', pp. 154–162. *

External links

* * An engraving of a painting by Retzsch made for The Literary Souvenir, 1825 with illustrative verse by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...

. 1779 births 1857 deaths German draughtsmen 19th-century German engravers 18th-century German painters 18th-century German male artists German male painters 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists Academic staff of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts People from the Electorate of Saxony 18th-century German etchers 19th-century German etchers Draughtsmen from the Holy Roman Empire {{Germany-painter-stub