Heinrich Friedrich Thomas Schmidt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinrich Friedrich Thomas Schmidt (also: Heinrich Schmidt ; born January 17, 1780 in Berlin , † after 1829 ) was a German painter , engraver and etcher .

Life

Christoph Martin Wieland after Ferdinand Jagemann , around 1800;
Copper engraving published by the Landes-Industrie-Comptoir of Friedrich Justin Bertuch in Weimar

Born in 1780 in the royal seat of the Kingdom of Prussia as the eldest son of the Saxon court painter Johann Heinrich Schmidt , Heinrich Friedrich Thomas Schmidt was instructed in painting by his father at an early age. In Dresden, Schmidt completed an apprenticeship in the art of copperplate engraving and quickly gained a reputation as one of "[...] the most excellent artists in his field".

In 1799 Schmidt went to Leipzig and did some work there, then also visited the French capital Paris for study purposes. Schmidt worked in Weimar from 1805 to 1809 .

After the so-called " French period " and the collection of the former Electorate of Hanover to the Kingdom of Hanover and about a century after Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz already on December 20, 1715 Nicholas Zealanders as an engraver of the then Electoral Hanover had suggested and Royal Britannic library so that these illustrations to would produce Leibniz's work on the history of the Guelphs , the director of the now Royal Hanover Library, Johann Georg Heinrich Feder , received notification on February 17, 1816 that Heinrich Friedrich Thomas Schmidt, who came from Berlin, had been appointed court engraver - without that Feder had previously submitted a corresponding application. In fact, Schmidt, as the successor to Johann Philipp Ganz , then also settled temporarily in Hanover. However, Schmidt evidently had few ambitions to "[...] consume himself in the service of the state:" When the Postmaster General Wilhelm August von Rudloff von Schmidt expected illustrations for an ordinance to be published for November 26, 1816 for the purpose of new uniforms for postal workers, Schmidt refused, and did not even visit Rudloff until he finally placed the order elsewhere.

From several received letters to the court advisor and library director Feder, both from Rudloff and von Schmidt, it emerged that Schmidt rejected the state assignments intended for him as being below his qualifications. And he must have had a high-ranking patronage in order not to have fallen out of favor. Instead, on September 20, 1817, the Hanoverian Ministry granted him a three-month vacation to travel to the Kingdom of Saxony . In addition, the artist in Hanover had apparently contracted a chronic physical ailment, which had a lasting negative impact on his further artistic work: Schmidt still worked from time to time, but mostly only worked on minor engravings for almanacs .

On September 25, 1823, the Hanoverian Ministry again granted Schmidt leave, this time for two years for an art trip to southern Germany - and notified the library accordingly. This vacation was then extended for another year. But even then Schmidt did not return to the city, which, due to the personal union between Great Britain and Hanover, was long considered an "orphaned royal seat", since the sovereign - and with him the entire court - as King George IV. Was almost continuously in the heartland of the British Empire resided in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland .

When Georg Heinrich Pertz took over the management of the Royal Library in Hanover in 1827, "[...] he was amazed to find that the engraver was not there, although according to the files his vacation had long expired." January 1829 he asked the Ministry for clarification and explained that the court engraver had to produce images for the historical works written or edited by the librarian (such as the Monumenta Germaniae Historica ). So far, however, Pertz has not been able to find any engraved plates by Schmidt. Now the ministry had to react, and on February 2, 1829, sent a letter to Schmidt in Dresden with the request to return to Hanover by Easter of that year. Only now ( sic ) was the salary of the Hanoverian court copper engraver , which had been regularly paid until then, temporarily blocked: "[...] Schmidt probably found it unreasonable that he should do something for his salary; the year 1830 is considered to be the end of his employment in the [Hanoverian] library. "

Schmidt's successor and the last owner of the Hanoverian copper engraving office was Georg Heinrich Busse .

Well-known works (selection)

literature

  • Georg Kaspar Nagler : Schmidt, Heinrich Friedrich Thomas , in this: New general artist lexicon or news from the life and works of painters, sculptors, builders, engravers, shape cutters, lithographers, draftsmen, medalists, ivory workers, etc. , Vol 15, Verlag von EA Fleischmann, Munich 1845, p. 339; online through google books
  • Thieme-Becker
  • General Artist Lexicon , Bio-Bibliographical Index, Vol. 9, 2000

Archival material

An archival by and about Heinrich Friedrich Thomas Schmidt can be found, for example,

See also

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Friedrich Thomas Schmidt  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Georg Kaspar Nagler: Schmidt, Heinrich Friedrich Thomas , in ders .: New general artist lexicon ... , Vol. 15, Verlag von EA Fleischmann, Munich 1845, p. 339; online through google books
  2. ↑ Compare, for example, the artist's signature on the portrait of Christoph Martin Wieland
  3. ↑ Baptismal register Marienkirche, 1780 p. 4th
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Reinhard Oberschelp (edit.): Introduction , in this. Copperplate engravings in the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library (= writings , vol. 1), Hameln: Niemeyer, 2005, ISBN 3-8271-8901-2 , Pp. 13-32; here: p. 30f.
  5. ↑ a b Compare the information under the GND number of the German National Library
  6. ↑ Klaus Mlynek : Napeleonische wars. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , pp. 459f.
  7. ^ Klaus Mlynek: Capital (function). In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 274.
  8. ^ Klaus Mlynek: Georg IV., King of Hanover, King of Great Britain and Ireland. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , p. 128
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Heinrich Friedrich Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmidt, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, engraver and etcher
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1780
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH after 1829