Joseph Eduard Wessely

Joseph Eduard Wessely (born May 8, 1826 in Welletau (Veletov), ​​not far from Kolín , Bohemia ; † March 17, 1895 in Braunschweig ) was a German-Bohemian art historian . His specialty was the history of copper engraving .

Live and act

The son of the mill owner Franz Wessely and Anna Falta began studying theology, classical literature, Greek philology, aesthetics, the history of philology and state history at the University of Prague in 1843 after attending the grammar school in Jungbunzlau . There he entered the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star on October 1, 1845 , where he was ordained a priest in 1850.

His fondness for art, which had existed since his youth, was supported by the grand master of his order, and so Wessely was able to attend the Prague painters' academy and in 1856 go on a study trip to Italy for a year. The focus of his further artistic and scientific work should be the art of copper engraving and etching . After Wessely was appointed pastor at the Karlskirche in Vienna in 1861 , he also occupied himself intensively with the art collection at the Albertina . Another study trip to the most important art sites in Europe followed from 1865. At the same time he began his writing activity.

In 1866 Wessely resigned from the order and converted to the Protestant church. At the same time he left Austria and from then on lived in Germany, where he initially lived on the income from his publications. On January 1, 1869, he finally took up a position as a dietician at the royal cabinet of copper engravings of the Royal Museums in Berlin , where he was appointed assistant director on May 1, 1877. But only a few months later, the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig appointed Wessely as the successor to the copper engraver Friedrich Knolle , who died in July , where he was to continue the reorganization of the copper engraving collection he had begun. After a long period of reflection, Wessely finally took up the position of museum inspector in Braunschweig on April 1, 1878.

In addition to his work with cataloging the copper engraving collection, Wessely now developed a lively literary activity. He wrote numerous monographs on important engravers as well as textbooks and handbooks, directories and specialist books on the art of copper engraving. Many of his publications were in various encyclopedias, newspapers and magazines as well as the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie

Joseph Eduard Wessely was married to Katharina Bourdet born. Tille, the widow of his friend, the landscape painter Karl Joseph Bourdet (1828-1859). Wessely died of complications from a stroke. He left behind his wife and five children, some of whom, like the painter and watercolorist Carl Josef Alois Bourdet (1851–1928), came from his wife's first marriage.

Publications

• Jan de Visscher and Lambert Visscher: Directory of their copper engravings . Leipzig 1866.
• The basic principle of the German rhythm at the height of the nineteenth century . Leipzig 1866.
• Abraham Blooteling: Directory of his engravings and mezzotint sheets . Leipzig 1867.
• The figures of death and the devil in the performing arts . Leipzig 1867.
• Iconography of God and the saints . Leipzig 1874.
• The nineteenth-century German painter-etchers (Peintres-Engraveurs), after their lives and works . Volume 5, 1877 (in continuation of the work by Andreas Andresen ).
• Critical lists of the works of outstanding engravers. Volume 1: Georg Friedrich Schmidt. List of his engravings and etchings . Haendcke & Lehmkuhl, Hamburg 1887.
• Adriaen van Ostade. List of his original etchings and graphic reproductions . Leipzig 1888.
• Article in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Wesselý, Joseph Eduard . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 50th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1884, pp. 173–181 ( digitized version ).
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Wesselý, J. Pater . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 50th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1884, p. 187 ( digitized version ).
• Paul Zimmermann :  Wessely, Joseph Eduard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 42, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1897, p. 144 f.
• Thomas Döhring: Wessely, Joseph Eduard. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 649 .

Web links

Wikisource: Joseph Eduard Wessely  - Sources and full texts

• Publications by Joseph Eduard Wessely in the catalog of the German National Library