Heinrich Merz

Kaspar Heinrich Merz (born May 1, 1806 in St. Gallen ; † July 29, 1875 at the Wilder Kaiser near Kufstein ) was a Swiss draftsman as well as copper and steel engraver .

Life

The teacher: Samuel Amsler ;
Engraving by Merz after Wilhelm von Kaulbach

The Last Judgment , Ludwigskirche , second largest altar fresco in the world;
Engraving until 1840 by Merz after Cornelius' fresco

The painter Gustav König ;
Print after a photograph

Seminary and library in Fulda , steel engraving around 1850

Town and Castle Homberg after a drawing by Merz, around 1850, printed by Lange

Heinrich Merz was born the son of a poor weaver . After the death of his father, he was brought up as a half- orphan from the age of six to the age of 15 in the orphanage , where, among other things, he was instructed in drawing with some success. Therefore, at the age of 15, starting in 1821, he was " apprenticed " to the engraver Johann Jakob Lips in Zurich for four years .

After completing his apprenticeship, Merz managed, with the help of “some patrons ”, to work in Munich in the Antikensaal for a year , but was able to extend his stay in Munich a little with smaller jobs. In 1828 Merz returned to Switzerland.

However, after the Swiss copper engraver Samuel Amsler was appointed professor of copper engraving at the Munich Art Academy in 1829 , Merz followed him and became “Amsler's most loyal student”.

After Merz had also gained a reputation for his color casts, some of which had been created over years of individual work, the "sprightly man [...] had an accident, probably as a result of a heartbeat , on July 29, 1875 on a mountain trip on the so-called Wilder Kaiser next Kufstein".

Famous works

• Early works:
  • 50 sheets for Friedrich Olivier ’s “Volksbilderbibel” ( New Testament with text by Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert ) , Verlag Gotha from 1836 Original title: Bilder-Bibel in fifty pictorial representations by [Friedrich] Oliver / Besides one accompanying. Text by G [otthilf] H [einrich] von Schubert
  • Portraits of Niebuhr after Schnorr
  • Portrait of Count Raczynski
  • " Cain and Abel " according to Genelli
  • “Apparition of Christianity” in C. Hermann’s “History of the German People”, published in 1852 by Gotha, Perthes
• around 1833: Engraving after the “Madonna” (from the “Adoration of the Kings” in the All Saints Church ) by Hess for the Frankfurter Kunstverein , published in Munich in 1833 by Reichardt
• 1834: "Jakob, Laban and Rahel" after a pen drawing by Julius Schnorr
• around 1835 after Wilhelm von Kaulbach , for the Frankfurter Kunstverein:
  • Portrait of Samuel Amsler
  • "Fool's house"
  • " Egmont and Klärchen "
• after Cornelius
  • 1836–1838: Completion of the record started by Professor E. Schäffer with the "Night"
  • until 1840: Reproduction of Cornelius “ Last Judgment ” in the Ludwigskirche
  • "Birth" and "Crucifixion of Christ" (originals both in the Ludwigskirche)
• " Barbarossa " after Kaulbach, printed in the so-called Hermann calendar for 1843, after of J. Minsinger electrically amplified plate
• The life of a witch in drawings by Bonaventura Genelli , died by Heinrich Merz and Carl Arnold] Gonzenbach , with explanatory remarks by Hermann Ulrici , Düsseldorf: Julius Buddeus; Leipzig: Rudolph Weigel, undated (1847), 2 sheets with 10 etchings, 5 of them by Merz
• 1848-1852, "in eight years of work" on behalf of Carl scales : large color engraving after Kaulbach's in the Neue Pinakothek befindlichem Oelbilde "The destruction of Jerusalem"
  • from it the group with the "Exodus of Christians"
• around 1853: Capital sheet “The Destruction of Troy” based on the mural by Cornelius in the Glyptothek , published 1853–55 in Leipzig, published by the Bibliographisches Institut and for the Cologne Art Association
• "The repentant sinner or the joy of the angels" according to G. König with two marginal drawings for the "Psalms" of the same
• 10 sheets on Genelli's “The Life of an Artist”, published in Leipzig by Alphons Dürr
• "Mayor Wengi of Solothurn stands in front of the cannons of the rioters" according to Casp. Boshart, published by Lang in Basel
• 3 steel engravings after Friedrich Pecht in his Schiller Gallery , published in 1859
• 25 plates for Ernst Förster's “Monuments of Italian Painting”, published in Leipzig from 1870 by TO Weigel
• Outlines after Peter Cornelius "Drafts for the art-historical frescos in the loggias of the royal Pinakothek", with text by E. Förster , Leipzig 1875, by Alphons Dürr, 48 sheets
• seven sheets of Führich's “Book of Ruth”, published in Leipzig in 1875
• 2 sheets for Schwind's "Fidelio", Leipzig 1875 (the other two by Gonzenbach)

literature

• Thieme-Becker
• Hyacinth Holland :  Merz, Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 482 f.
• Nagler, 1840, IX, 158 ff.
• C. Förster, History of German Art, 1860, V, 257.
• Lützow's magazine, 1875, X, 809 ff.
• Kunstverein report for 1876, p. 83.
• E. Förster, in: Westermannsmonthshefte , 1879.
• Apell, Handbuch, 1880, p. 278.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Merz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Heinrich Merz in the Europeana .eu (the author of the same name will be included there in early 2012)
• Heinrich Merz in the photo archive Photo Marburg
• Merz, Heinrich. In: Sikart
• Tapan Bhattacharya: Heinrich Merz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b authority} data entry (GND 116912634 ) of the German National Library . Query date: January 13, 2017.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad} Hyacinth Holland:  Merz, Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 482 f.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Schiller Gallery. Characters from Schiller's works. Drawn by Friedrich Pecht and Arthur von Ramberg , fifty sheets in steel engraving with explanatory texts by Friedrich Pecht F. A. Brockhaus , Leipzig 1859; online through google books
4. ↑ Information from the German National Library