Adam von Bartsch

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Self-Portrait, 1785

Johann Adam Bernhard Ritter von Bartsch (born August 17, 1757 in Vienna ; † August 21, 1821 there ); Austrian artist and art writer and founder of systematic-critical graphic studies.

Life

Adam (from 1812 Ritter von) Bartsch joined the imperial court library in Vienna as a scriptor in 1777 , studied copperplate engraving under Jacob Schmuzer at the Vienna copper engraving academy and was appointed custodian of the graphic collection of the court library in 1791, which he headed until his death. He was the advisor to many well-known collectors, including Duke Albert von Sachsen-Teschen , who brought together one of the most important collections of graphics and drawings of his time. In the 20th century, the two collections were merged to form today's Albertina .

From 1794 Bartsch published scientifically founded catalogs raisonnés for various graphic artists. Between 1803 and 1821 he published his magnum opus in 21 volumes: Le Peintre Graveur with numerous indexes of old masters' prints from the 15th to 18th centuries. Century.

Shortly before his death in 1821, Bartsch published the instructions for engraving , in which, drawing on the sum of his knowledge and practical experience, he attempted to give laypeople the often difficult to access and widely dispersed knowledge of the technology and history of printmaking in the form of a To convey the manual.

In addition to his scientific work, Bartsch was also an artist and, with his oeuvre of almost 600 sheets, is one of the most innovative and interesting graphic artists of his time. In addition to a number of remarkable portraits, illustration graphics, military and costume representations, Bartsch devoted himself above all to the reproduction of hand drawings by old masters and created numerous sheets, some of which were published individually, some as series or extensive collections, which made him one of the most important graphic artists in this field do.

Works

Le Peintre Engraver

Le Peintre Graveur appeared in 21 volumes between 1803 and 1821. The work, written in French, includes catalogs of Old Master prints from the 15th to 18th centuries. Century, divided into schools. It is still cited as a standard reference work today. Bartsch introduced the numbering system named after him for Rembrandt van Rijn's etchings (e.g. “Bartsch 17” or “B17”) and the graphics of many other artists. The Bartsch system is still considered the standard. The Leipzig bookseller and auctioneer Rudolph Weigel created a supplementary volume in 1843 ("Supplements"). The local researcher and art historian Joseph Heller published "Zusätze" in 1844.

His term peintre-graveur , ie the “painter-graphic artist”, is still used today to distinguish graphic artists who create according to their own invention or according to their own templates from those who engrave from outside templates. The often associated devaluation of reproduction graphics compared to "free" graphics was not intended by Bartsch. After Bartsch's death, his definition of the term was misused.

The large-scale corpus work The Illustrated Bartsch (TIB), which has been published since 1978 (Abaris Press, New York) and is estimated to be at least 164 volumes, aims to illustrate the entries of the Peintre Graveur in the form of picture books and accompanying them To supplement commentary volumes. While the panel volumes have for the most part already appeared, only a small part of the text volumes in which the catalog raisonnés of the artists concerned are to be brought up to date are available. This work can be viewed on the Internet via the ARTStor image database (previously only the images), primarily for universities in North America.

List of works

literature

  • Rudolf Rieger: Art. Bartsch, Johann Adam , In: General Artists Dictionary. The visual artists of all times and peoples . Munich 1983, Vol. 7, p. 31
  • Rudolf Rieger: Adam von Bartsch 1757–1821. Homage to the 250th birthday of the Viennese graphic artist and art historian , Bonn 2007
  • Rudolf Rieger: Adam von Bartsch (1757-1821). Life and work of the Viennese art historian and copperplate engraver with special consideration of his reproduction graphics based on hand drawings. With an outline of the history and development of the reproduction of drawings in the 18th and 19th centuries, a catalog raisonné of prints and Bartsch's hand drawings as well as a list of his writings, manuscripts, autographs and archival sources, Petersberg 2014

Web links

Commons : Adam von Bartsch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Bartsch, Adam von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bartsch, Johann Adam Bernhard Ritter von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian art writer and artist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1821
Place of death Vienna