Jacob von Döhren
Jacob von Döhren , pseudonym: Hans Plattversius, (* 1746 in Hamburg ; † January 11, 1800 there ) was a German silhouette cutter , illustrator and writer .
Life
Jacob von Döhren was a son of Otto van Döhren. His father was a well-known confectioner in Hamburg. After completing his commercial training, he worked for Sieveking & Partner, for which he probably traded in sugar. From 1788 at the latest, he took over agent activities for the House of Hessen-Kassel .
Jacob von Döhren married Katharina Dorothea Kneese in 1773, who died in 1775. Three years later he married Margaretha Muhl, with whom he had three daughters. He had a granddaughter named Amanda Böhme, who married Johann Hinrich Wicherns in 1835 .
Works
In addition to his professional activity, von Döhren worked as an artist and writer. From 1777 he published booklets under the title "Icones Plantarum", each containing 25 illustrated botanical tables. He tried to optimize this process and used a copper printing press under which he placed dried and black-colored plants. So he could make amazingly good copies up to 100 copies. Since such illustrations found only a few buyers, von Döhren stopped further attempts.
Instead, he dealt with silhouettes. He invented a silhouette chair that was based on a device originally invented by Johann Caspar Lavater and that could be fixed to almost any seat. He sold this for private use. He also developed a method for reproducing his own and existing silhouettes, for which he used roughened, blackened plates of brass and zinc that were pressed onto paper. This enabled him to quickly and accurately create numerous copies that he sold profitably.
Von Döhren had good contacts with Hamburg merchants and members of the Schleswig-Holstein nobility, which enabled him to create numerous portraits in a short period of time. He often depicted women several times with different headdresses. He also portrayed many personalities who were guests in Hamburg. Von Döhren did not achieve any artistic achievements of his own worth mentioning, but created a collection whose scope is unique in northern Germany. He left behind 700 brass plates, sample cuts and works ready for sale. This was initially taken over by Heinrich Wichern, who passed it on to Ascan Lutteroth in 1904 . This passed it on to the Museum of Hamburg History , which still has the estate to this day.
In 1778 von Döhren wrote silhouettes of now-living scholars en Bou-Magie . The work contained portraits and lists of writings by Johann Georg Büsch , Joachim Heinrich Campe , Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Johannes Schmidlin . It can be seen as the first such compilation of different silhouettes that was quickly imitated by other artists.
Around 1790 the demand for silhouettes decreased significantly. For this reason, Jacob von Döhren did not create any further portraits, but from then on wrote economic works and mostly poems written in Low German.
literature
- Susanne Geese: Döhren, Jacob von . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 96-97 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Döhren, Jacob von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German silhouette cutter, illustrator and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1746 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 11, 1800 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |