Hans Heinrich Plötz

Hans Heinrich Plötz (born January 6, 1747 in Rellingen , † January 23, 1830 in Copenhagen ) was a German miniature painter, portrait artist and inventor of precision instruments.

Live and act

Hans Heinrich Plötz was a son of the carpenter Hans Plötz, who allegedly came from a Polish noble family, and his wife Catharina Dorothea Sibbert. He lost both parents at a young age. The Danish general Caesar Lüttichau took care of his education and made sure that he received flute lessons in Fredericia . In 1768, Hans Wilhelm von Warnstädt helped him get a place in the Royal Court Chapel of Copenhagen. In 1771 they both traveled to Switzerland, where Plötz fell ill and could no longer play the flute.

Oudry advised Plötz to train, which he first received from an enamel painter and then from the mechanic PJ Droz. In 1775 he met the naturalist Charles Bonnet in Genthod . For his scientific work he created panels of insects and plants and assisted in botanical and mechanical experiments. He was constantly trying to establish contacts between Bonnet and Danish artists. For this reason, Johann Friderich Clemens , Jens Juel , FL Bradt and S. Malgoc moved to Genthod in 1797 .

Plötz lived in Bonnet's house since 1776 and during this time investigated a method with which profile pictures could be mechanically created as true to the original as possible. For this he designed a Physionotrace and a pantograph . After Bonnet's death, his relatives cheated of his inheritance. The English diplomat and archaeologist Sir William Hamilton, who had met Platz at Bonnet, asked him to come to Naples, where he met Wilhelm Tischbein and spent his time with mechanical experiments, music and painting. In 1796 Platz left Italy and traveled to Poland accompanied by the future Archbishop of Poznan, Ignacy Raczynski. Since November 1897 he worked in Berlin in a joint studio with Christian Hornemann . The miniatures or drawings that were created during this period sometimes bear the signatures of both painters. In 1790 the Berlin Academy and the Academy of Naples accepted him as a member.

In 1799, Plötz followed a call from Christian Günther von Bernstorff as court mechanic in Copenhagen. In the same year he was nominated as a potential candidate for the Academy in Copenhagen , but never submitted member pieces. In Copenhagen he invented precision instruments, including a stamping machine that enabled the production of banknotes that could not be copied. He lost his workshop in the bombing of Copenhagen in 1807 . Three years later he presented 16 different inventions.

Compared to Paul Ipsen and Boy Jensen Greve, who were similar contemporary northern German artists, Plötz worked most intensively as a miniature painter in the European tradition. Compared to Hornemann, he was more concerned with topics that helped him as a court mechanic.

family

Plötz married Anna Maria Petersen on September 18, 1801 (born November 27, 1763 in Sønderborg ; † December 31, 1825 in Copenhagen). She was a daughter of Peter Andersen and Maria Stalhorn. The son Carl Ludwig (1803–1849), who worked as a miniature painter, came from the marriage.

literature

• Lilli Martius: Plötz, Hans Heinrich . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , page 215.
• Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Johann Heinrich Plötz, in: Ders., Longing for Arcadia - Schleswig-Holstein Artists in Italy, Heide 2009, p. 26f.

Web links

Commons : Henrik Plötz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Lilli Martius: Plötz, Hans Heinrich . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , page 215.