Franz Joseph Ess

Franz Joseph Ess (* 1735 ; † 1796 in Munich ) was a German porcelain maker .

Life

Little is known about the artist's biography. He worked for a time in the porcelain factory founded by Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg in 1758 . This manufacture in Ludwigsburg was initially headed by Joseph Jakob Ringler , who had previously worked in Höchst, Strasbourg and Nymphenburg and apparently z. T. recruited workers whom he had met in the porcelain factories there. Among them was Gottlieb Friedrich Riedel and probably also the modeller Franz Joseph Ess. This was discontinued on January 20, 1760. He initially received a monthly salary of 24 guilders, which was increased after three months. Ess, who had probably previously worked in Höchst, stayed in Ludwigsburg until 1763. Then he moved to Nymphenburg. In the last decades of his life he lived as a “burger and medal maker” in Munich.

Advertisement in the Munich intelligence papers

In an advertisement in the Munich intelligence papers from 1783, he was named “the former caretaker of the electoral prince. Albertine College in Ingolstadt ”. Several newspaper advertisements and catalogs from his later years show that he tried to sell several thousand impressions of coins and medals made from a porcelain-like mass.

Works

Ess' special skills apparently included the design of lifelike porcelain flowers and blossoms, which is why numerous Ludwigsburg pompous vases from the period from 1760 to 1763 are adorned with flower garlands. Porcelain flowers based on Ess' designs are still produced and sold.

Ess, which was previously relatively unknown, became the focus of research through an exhibition in the Reinhard Jansen Collection in 2008. Many of his works, which are in the collections of various museums, were identified during the preparatory work and the catalog creation. Among other things, Ess created a group of children's figures who embody the four seasons, a series of standing gods, dancers and other couples, and figures of women in hoop skirts .

Characteristic features of eating figures are not only the interconnected middle and ring fingers of his human figures, but also the somewhat twisted posture, which is particularly characteristic of the standing gods: The figures - a Venus and a Mercury, for example, are located in Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum , a Jupiter in Jansen's collection - have a clear hollow back and a belly base and reach into the room with their forearms in front of them.

The series is likely not fully known at this time; Jansen assumes that other missing god figures from Ess could reappear. The same applies to a similar series of gods that Ess' contemporary Johann Wilhelm Götz created and which testifies to more precise anatomical knowledge.

Götz's repertoire bears another similarity to Ess's; he also created an allegory of the four seasons, popular in the Rococo . According to Christel Heybrock, while the children's figures that Ess designed have an aspect of cuteness, Götz designed his Vier Jahreszeiten as a representative centerpiece, consisting of four benches crowned with rocaille ornaments , on each of which a puss-shimmering couple sits.

Publications

• Newly increased list of various coin impressions serving to explain the history of the Church, the Empire and the nations, which are to be had by me at the end of the lower prices set against the attached lower prices , 1785
• Third-increased list of various medals and coin impressions serving to explain the history of churches, empires and nations , 1788
• Directory of International History Explanation , 1793

literature

• Patricia Brattig (ed.), Splendor of the Rococo. Ludwigsburg porcelain from the Jansen collection , Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-89790-286-2 .

Web links

Commons : Franz Joseph Ess  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Appendix to the Münchner Zeitung Nro. LXXIX, May 20, 1785, p. 261
2. ↑ Sabine Hesse, Blossoms made of porcelain just can't smell , in: Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung , August 24, 2008
3. ↑ Porcelain roses based on designs by Franz Joseph Ess  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ ^{a b} Christel Heybrock, Gods, Ladies, Cavaliers - sweet porcelain games. The Ludwigsburg manufactory in the Reinhard Jansen collection , at: kunstundkosmos.de