Chodowiecki, Daniel |
| ENGRAVER, ILLUSTRATOR, PAINTER (GERMANY) |
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BORN 16 Oct 1726, Gdansk - DIED 7 Feb 1801, Berlin GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Französischer Friedhof, Chausseestrasse (G-6-10) |
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Son of Gottfried Chodowiecki, a grain merchant from Danzig of Polish ancestry who was also an amateur painter. His mother came from a Huguenotic family. Daniel spoke French, German and Polish fluently. From 1740 to 1754 he worked as a merchant himself. In 1754 he moved to Berlin together with his brother. He was training there as a salesman, but he met Lorenz Haid from Augsburg, who learned him enamel painting. Further teachers were Bernard Rode and Johann Wilhelm Meil. In 1755 he married Johanna Marie Barez (1728-1785), the dauhter of the Huegenot silk embroidener Jean Barez from Amsterdam. Their son Wilhelm Chodowiecki (1765-1805) was a painter and an engraver. They lived at the Brüderstrasse in Berlin and later at the Behrenstrasse 31 in Berlin. Chodowiecki became one of the most popular illustrators of Prussia and in 1764 he was admitted to the Royal Prussian Academy of Art. He drew and painted daily German life in an ironical way. Over 2000 of his engravings have been saved. He illustrated Schiller’s "Räuber", Cervantes’s "Don Quixote" and works of Shakespeare. His most famous painting is "The Departure of Jean Calas" (1767). In 1773 he made a trip to Poland of which he kept a diary including a series of 108 drawings. In 1783 he became the secretary of the Prussian Academy of Arts and he became its president after Rode died in 1797. Chodowiecki's died in 1801 in Berlin. His grave was removed, but it was reerected during the 1930s. His family house in Holy Spirit Street in Gdansk was rebuilt after the Second World War. Related persons • illustrated work of Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von • illustrated work of Lessing, Gotthold Ephraïm • was a friend of Rode, Bernhard • was pupil of Rode, Bernhard • illustrated work of Schiller, Friedrich von |
| Images |
 The grave of Daniel Chodowiecki at the Dorotheenstädtischen Friedhof, Berlin. Picture by Androom (21 Jan 2004) |
Sources • Baedeker Berlin, Baedeker Verlag, Stuttgart, 1994 • Streidt, Gert & Peter Feierabend, Pruisen, kunst en architectuur, Könemann, Köln, 2000 • Daniel Chodowiecki – Wikipedia |
