Christoph Hawich

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Self-portrait Christoph Hawich

Christoph Hawich (born September 17, 1782 in Trier ; † September 5, 1848 there ; writing variants: Hahvich, Havig, Habich) was a German painter , porcelain painter, drawing teacher and lithographer.

Origin and education

Christoph Hawich came from a family of painters who immigrated from Koblenz to Trier in the middle of the 18th century . He received his first artistic training from his father, the painter Stephan Hawich (born April 3, 1753 in Koblenz, † July 11, 1827 in Trier) and from a previously unidentified painter Jungblut. According to the autobiographical information in his letter of application as a drawing teacher of January 13, 1821, he then expanded his skills in the "art of painting" on study trips, especially in Düsseldorf. However, there is no proof of academic training in Düsseldorf. Both of Hawich's marriages, concluded in 1810 with Margarete Becker from Eschdorf and after her death in 1838 with Elisabeth Molitor from Trier, remained childless.

Head of porcelain painting

View service from the Trier Porcelain Manufactory

Hawich initially worked as a salaried drawing teacher at private schools, and for a short time independently at his own drawing school before he came to the Trier porcelain factory as head of painting in 1816. This manufactory, founded in 1807 in the former Benedictine abbey of St. Martin , ran into difficulties after the city of Trier changed from French to Prussian rule and was auctioned off in 1815. The buyer was the Trier entrepreneur Peter Marx, a friend of the Hawich family of painters, who started the business again with great success from 1816 onwards, before mistakes in management, the growing competition of cheaper earthenware and the invention of the transfer printing process on porcelain at the beginning of 1821 Forced to give up production.

As the application letter already quoted shows, Hawich headed the porcelain painting department as “first painter and teacher” during these five years. He was responsible for three main areas of work: As a role model, he had to paint porcelain himself, which, however, was not allowed to label it with his signature due to the fact that he was part of the factory in accordance with the customs of the factory manufacturing of handicrafts . He also procured the templates for the reproduction painting customary in the manufactory: his own designs, but also drawings or engravings by other artists, which he prepared so that his employees could carry out the miniature-like fine porcelain painting using the overglaze technique. As a teacher at the factory's own drawing school, he was also responsible for training young talent.

The hand-painted products of the porcelain factory - mainly coffee services, decorative cups and vases - showed representations of the Roman monuments in Trier and attractive landscape sections of the area. Enthusiasm for antiquity and the romance of travel are reflected in this porcelain of views, which could be sold to wealthy travelers as well as to Trier citizens and subsequently advanced from a souvenir to a rare and expensive collector's item.

Public school drawing teacher

Lithograph of the Igel column

At the beginning of 1822 Hawich was able to get a permanent position as a drawing teacher at the newly founded Trier boys' school, which he held for the following 24 years until his age-related dismissal in 1846. At the same time, from 1821 he ran a drawing school in Trier-St.-Irminen for prospective craftsmen, to whom he - in anticipation of later arts and crafts lessons - wanted to impart basic artistic skills according to a step-by-step curriculum that he worked out in detail. However, it turned out that his trainees were not able to cope with the double burden of long working hours and additional lessons. The institution, which was last run only as a Sunday school, was closed at the beginning of 1830.

The lithographer

Coffee pot, two views "Igeler Thurm bey Trier"

Hawich was the first to introduce lithography in Trier, invented in 1797/98 . After he had acquired their technique on visits to numerous lithographic printers in Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Mainz and Paris, he succeeded in setting up his own lithography company in Palastgasse in 1823 with the help of a loan from the city of Trier and financial support from patrons Founding No. 95. In the same year he brought out an extensive portfolio with lithographed views of the city of Trier (the lithographs here were still made by the Frankfurt engraver Johan Susenbeth ), which became his most famous work. Hawich relied on his fund of drawings from his porcelain painting, as the large number of corresponding representations on the lithographs of the portfolio and the Trier view porcelain shows. The explanatory text came from the writer Markus Theodor von Haupt , who was then a judge in Trier , who had already written a small travel guide “Panorama of Trier and its surroundings” and “Trierisches Zeitbuch” in 1822.

In the years 1824 to 1826 Hawich also presented two small works for the Trier Casino Society, three important works on the city's history and topography, now with his own lithographs: First, a compilation of portraits of memorable Trier personalities, for which one of his sponsors, the High school director and city historian Johann Hugo Wyttenbach (born April 6, 1767 in Bausendorf; † June 22, 1848 in Trier), provided engravings from the fund of the Trier city library he founded. Another patron, the Trier doctor Johann Mathias Neurohr, was the author of the explanatory text. This was followed by a representative large folio format with lithographed views of the Roman grave pillar in Igel near Trier, again with an accompanying text by Neurohr. In the same year, 1826, Hawich published a large-format city map, framed by 26 detailed views, which he dedicated to the Lord Mayor of Trier, Georg Wilhelm Nikolaus Haw . But a little later the Hawichs lithographic printing plant was already at an end. His lithographs sold just as slowly and slowly as those of the famous Trier painter Johann Anton Ramboux , who had to break off his artistically outstanding views of Trier, created in 1824-27, after four deliveries. Christoph Hawich, as a freelance painter rather moderately talented, but diversely involved at the interface between art and craft, remained in his hometown Trier's memory as a pioneer of lithography. His services to Moselle tourism are even more important: his porcelain paintings and lithographs served as early visual works for travelers in the region.

Works

Traditional paintings

  • Christoph Hawich, self-portrait, 1828, oil on canvas, 50 × 37 cm, Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier, inv. III 660
  • Christoph Hawich, portrait of the cathedral canon Bertrand Ludwig Prestinary, undated, oil on canvas, 92 × 72 cm, United Hospices Trier
  • Christoph Hawich (attributed to), St. Paulin picture clock, around 1822/23, oil on wood, 60 × 80 cm, walking, chiming and chimes signed “Schlöder in Trier”, private ownership.

Porcelain painting

  • The Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier and the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier offer a good overview of the - all unmarked - production range of the Trier porcelain factory, including the decors ascribed to Christoph Hawich. The Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg has an outstanding "Hawich" view service (Déjeuner) with a yellow background, inv. XII / 2609a-d.

Lithographs

  • Christoph Hawich: Trier's antiquities and surroundings in 22 picturesque views, taken by Hahvich's son, Steindr. / by J. Susenbeth in Frankfurt a. M .; Accompanying text by Markus Theodor von Haupt, Trier 1823, folio format, Trier City Library, call number 10/52 2 °
  • Christoph Hawich: Literary Casino in Trier, 1824, lithograph, 18.6 × 38 cm, City Museum Simeonstift Trier, inv. V 117.
  • Christoph Hawich: Members of the Society of the Literary Casino in Trier on January 1st, 1825. Lith. By Chr. Hawich; Calligraphic cover sheet for the list of members, octave format, Trier City Library, call number 11/3513 a 8 °
  • Christoph Hawich: Illustrations of scholars and electoral princes and statesmen who were distinguished in the history of Trier, together with a biographical sketch / lithographer by Christoph Hawich. Painter and drawing teacher at the citizen school; Trier 1825, text by Johann Mathias Neurohr. Quart format, Trier City Library, signature 11/39 4 °
  • Christoph Hawich: Illustration of the Roman monument in hedgehogs / Drawn and lithographed by Christoph Hawich / Painter and drawing teacher at the Bürgererschule / With an explanatory text by Johann Mathias Neurohr. Trier 1826. Large folio, Trier City Library, signature 10/29 large -2 °
  • Christoph Hawich: Location plan of the city of Trier, 1826, lithograph, 56.5 × 70 cm, City Museum Simeonstift Trier, inv. V 685

literature

  • Aloys Resch, Heinrich Milz: From the boys' community school to the secondary school with secondary school - commemorative publication to celebrate the centennial of the institution. Trier 1922, pp. 5, 18 and 148.
  • Hermann Spoo: Arts and crafts lessons in Trier 100 years ago. In: Trierische Heimatblätter. Volume 2, No. 1–2, January / February 1923, pp. 28–31. With a transcription of the multi-level curriculum developed by Hawich.
  • Hans Lückger: Biographical guide through the exhibition. In: Portrait exhibition Trier 100 years ago. Organized by the local group Trier of the West German Society for Family Studies in conjunction with the Moselle Museum of the city of Trier. Trier 1929, No. 47 and 123.
  • Emil Zenz: Voices about Trier - A city history in texts from two millennia. Trier 1968. With scaled-down images of 16 of the 22 lithographs Hawichs from his Trier view folder published in 1823.
  • Dieter Ahrens: The Porta Nigra in Trier. A monument to antiquity and its changes - views from the 17th to the 20th century in the City Museum Simeonstift Trier. 1984, Figs. 19-21.
  • Natascha Jelen: Johann Anton Ramboux. Views of Trier. In: Dieter Ahrens (Ed.): Johann Anton Ramboux. Views of Trier. Exhibition catalog of the City Museum Simeonstift Trier. Trier 1991, pp. 65-79.
  • Guido Groß: Hawich, Christoph. In: Heinz Monz (Ed.): Trier Biographical Lexicon. Trier 2000, p. 165.
  • Hans-Ulrich Seifert: The image of the Moselle in the age of its technical reproducibility: Some remarks on the emergence and distribution of graphic image sequences and illustrated travel books about the Moselle region. In: Elisabeth Dühr, Richard Hüttel (ed.): Travel in pictures - Moselle views from William Turner to August Sander. Exhibition catalog. Trier 1996, pp. 47-58. (Revised edition: Image of the Moselle PDF )
  • Christl Lehnert-Leven: The "Hawichs" and the Trier porcelain manufactory. In: Elisabeth Dühr (Ed.): "For citizens and foreigners who hold on to elegance" - Trier porcelain. Catalog manual, Trier 2000, ISBN 3-930866-15-3 , pp. 94-141.
  • Gregor Scherf: The history of the Trier porcelain manufactory. In: Elisabeth Dühr (Ed.): "For citizens and foreigners who hold on to elegance" - Trier porcelain. Catalog manual, Trier 2000, ISBN 3-930866-15-3 , pp. 11-39.

Web links

Commons : Christoph Hawich  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter of application as a drawing teacher to the Trier Hospice Commission from January 13, 1821 . City archive Trier, hospital archive D4, miscellaneous, folder b.
  2. ^ Acta of the citizen school in Trier . Trier City Archives, Tb19 / 192
  3. ↑ Addendum of January 24, 1821 to the letter of application as a drawing teacher of January 13, 1821 . City archive Trier, hospital archive, D4, miscellaneous, folder b.
  4. ↑ Christoph Hawich: Advertisement of a lithograph newly built in Trier. In: Trierische Kronik, 8th volume 1823, p. 152 f. Advertisement dated June 23, 1823 with detailed information on his training as a lithographer and the scholars' series of lithographs that had already started
personal data
SURNAME Hawich, Christoph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hahvich, Christoph (alternative spelling); Havig, Christoph (alternative spelling); Habich Christoph (alternative spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, porcelain painter, drawing teacher and lithographer
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1782
PLACE OF BIRTH trier
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1848
Place of death trier