Johann Heinrich Werdmüller

Johann Heinrich Werdmüller 1742–1814, handwritten copper engraving

Johann Heinrich Werdmüller (* 1742 in Jonen ; † September 1814 in Zurich ) was a Swiss painter , draftsman , etcher and writer .

Life

Johann Heinrich Werdmüller was born in Jonen in Aargau in 1742 . He was a son of the shoemaker Jakob Ferdinand Werdmüller. At first he was destined to become a clergyman. However, in 1767 he sold medulle, school books and the long coat and decided to become a painter. As an artist, he initially had little success. From the mid-1770s he was supported by Johann Kaspar Lavater and his friend Johann Heinrich Füssli . He was not granted great successes or commissions. He was considered a man of many "half-knowledge". From 1793 he published works on art theory and the political situation, among other things . Johann Heinrich Werdmüller was considered eccentric and, as a political author, unable to reach a consensus . As a result, he got into difficult financial circumstances in his later years. One of the last records about him can be found in the citizenship budget of 1813. There he is listed as Johann Heinrich Werdmüller, chairman of the painters and benefactor of St. Jakob. According to the Zürcherisches Wochenblatt , he died in early September 1814.

plant

Johann Heinrich Werdmüller did not leave behind a broad artistic oeuvre. Only his small self-portrait from 1773 and a small etching by the Toggenburg chairman Johann Rudolf Nabholz became better known. Some bookplates were engraved by Werdmüller . Several portraits for Lavater's Physiognomic Fragments were created based on his drawings. Only a copy of the oil portrait of the Zurich doctor Hans Caspar Hirzel in the Gleimhaus in Halberstadt is known of the paintings. A described portrait of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi by Johann Heinrich Werdmüller cannot be assigned.

Fonts

• The flat grinder for the benefit of the customer. Näf, Zurich 1793.
• Conversation in the realm of the dead, between Grenadier Captain Leonhard Denzler von Zuerich, and Captain Heinrich Freyenmuth from there: a dream on 4th July 1799. Zurich 1799.
• A word to his fellow citizens on the occasion of the recent report from our municipality, about our community system, and about the most essential part of its content. Zurich 1799.
• Johann Heinrich Werdmüller, Matthias Stumpf: Phoenix in Helvetia, at the end of the XVIII. Century: A discourse on Zurich in June 1800: Dedicated to unity. Zurich 1800.
• Remarks about Pastor [Johann Jakob] Schweizer zu Embrach's proposals to save the fatherland. Waser, Zurich 1800.
• The oarlock with the borrowed peacock feathers: or: The word of B. District Judge Johannes Morf von Ryken to the audience, about the trial of B. Pastor Swiss from Embrach: seen in the light. Zurich 1801.
• Oddities of the city and landscape of Zurich. Näf, Zurich 1802.
• Encyclopedia of Perspective. Näf, Zurich 1811.

literature

• Carl Brun: Swiss artist lexicon. Volume 3, 1913, p. 487.