Christian Gottfried Heinrich Geissler

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Christian Gottfried Heinrich Geißler (around 1800)

Christian Gottfried Heinrich Geißler (born June 26, 1770 in Leipzig ; † April 27, 1844 there ) was a German engraver and illustrator . He is considered an important city chronicler of Leipzig, especially the wars between 1806 and 1813.

Life

The son of the goldsmith Johann Gottlob Geißler (1738–1799) and his wife Johanna Christina, b. von Ryssel attended the Leipzig Art Academy from 1784 . However, he received the decisive influences for his work from the portrayals of people and characters by the Leipzig illustrator Johann Salomon Richter (1761–1798).

In 1790 Geissler went to Saint Petersburg and worked here as a drawing teacher. Two years later he entered the service of the naturalist Peter Simon Pallas , whom he accompanied on an expedition to southern Russia in 1793/1794. In addition to botanical motifs, he also drew landscapes and inhabitants. After his return to Leipzig in 1798, these pictures formed the fund for the illustration of Pallas' travelogues and for non-fiction books on the customs and traditions of Russian tribes, which he edited together with Johann Gottfried Gruber , Johann Gottfried Richter and Friedrich Ferdinand Hempel .

In Leipzig he also illustrated children's and youth books and was a picture chronicler of the French occupation between 1806 and 1813. In addition, he drew or engraved a large number of cycles and single sheets as well as caricatures and depictions of individual moments from the Battle of Nations . A large number of original templates for these works can be found in the Leipzig City History Museum .

In the course of his life, Geißler hardly changed the way he worked. Although no stylistic or technical development can be recognized in his works, his representations are of great cultural and historical importance today.

Geißler married Christine Wilhelmine Auguste, born in 1801. Knight of the Haasen (* 1788). With her he had two sons, Peter Carl (* 1802) and August (* 1804), as well as the daughter Emilie (* 1806).

Honors

In 1903 a street in the Leipzig district of Volkmarsdorf was named after Geissler to commemorate “the creator of numerous Leipzig cityscapes, war scenes, measurement pictures, genre pictures, etc.” .

Work (selection)

Watercolor of his wife painted by Geissler (around 1800)

Copper engravings

  • 1808: Leipzig war scenes in 1806 and 1807 (8 sheets)
  • 1810: War scenes near and in Leipzig in June and July 1809 (12 sheets)
  • 1813/14: rubble of the French army on their return to the fatherland in 1813
  • 1814: Battle scenes I and II
  • 1824: A wish fulfilled (the joy of the elimination of the door poke)
  • 1830: Festival procession to Leipzig on the commemoration day of the Reformation in 1830
  • 1831: Leipzig municipal guard in their various uniforms (36 sheets)
  • 1830: Lindenstadt picture antics (18 sheets)
  • 1830: Leipziger Volksszenen (6 sheets)
  • 1838: Panorama of the last act of the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig on October 19, 1813

Books

  • Peter Simon Pallas: Comments on a trip to the southern Lieutenancies of the Russian Empire in 1793 and 1794. (2 volumes), Gottfried Martini, Leipzig 1799 (also published as an English edition Travels through the southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, in the years 1793 and 1794. John Stockdale, London 1812) - with 121 colored copper engravings by Geissler.
  • with Johann Gottfried Gruber: Russian folk amusements. With paintings. Leipzig 1801.
  • with Johann Gottfried Gruber: Manners, customs and clothing of the Russians in St. Petersburg depicted in paintings with descriptions. Leipzig 1801-1803.
  • with Friedrich Ferdinand Hempel: Illustration and description of the ethnic groups and peoples under the philanthropic government of the Russian Emperor Alexander. Verlag des Industrie-Comptoirs, Leipzig 1803.
  • with Friedrich Ferdinand Hempel, Johann Gottfried Richter: Mahleric representations of manners, customs and merrymaking among the Russian, Tatar, Mongolian and other peoples in the Russian Empire. (4 booklets), Leipzig 1804.
  • with Johann Gottfried Richter; Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna ; Johann Gottfried Gruber: Manners, customs and clothing of the Russians from the lower classes. Depicted in paintings. (2 volumes), Verlag des Industrie-Comptoirs, Leipzig 1805.
  • Leipzig measurement scenes. (3 volumes), EF Steinacker, Leipzig 1804–1805.
  • with Johann Gottfried Richter: Games and amusements of the Russians from the lower classes. Verlag des Industrie-Comptoirs, Leipzig 1805 ( digitized version ).
  • with Johann Gottfried Richter: Punishments of the Russians. Leipzig 1805.
  • with Johann Adam Bergk : Description and illustration of the strangest Russian peoples who are fighting against France in the current war. Verlag des Industrie-Comptoirs, Leipzig 1807 ( digitized version ).
  • Handbook and auxiliary book for Germans and Russians to make each other understandable, which contains all necessary idioms and a Russian-German and German-Russian dictionary with attached pronunciation. J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1813.

literature

Web links

Commons : Christian Gottfried Heinrich Geißler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gina Klank; Gernot Griebsch: Lexicon of Leipzig street names. Verlag im Wissenschaftszentrum Leipzig, Leipzig 1995, ISBN 3-930433-09-5 , p. 79.
  2. ↑ Images of the German and English edition
personal data
SURNAME Geissler, Christian Gottfried Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Geissler, CGH; Geissler, Christian Gottfried Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engraver and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1844
Place of death Leipzig