Die zwölf Leben des
Daniel Chodowiecki
('The twelve lives of
Daniel Chodowiecki')
A rediscovery on the
300th anniversary of his birth
Johann Wolfgang Goethe visited Berlin just once in his life, in 1778. Whilst there, he avoided almost all of the city's prominent artists and writers. However, he sought out one person whom he especially admired not just once, but even twice: the illustrator Daniel Niklaus Chodowiecki (1726 – 1801). Whatever Chodowiecki illustrated became a bestseller. His book illustrations made him the superstar of the booming book market. More than 4,000 known works prove his amazing productivity. Catalogues of his work were already published in his lifetime; Emperor Joseph II collected his folios and asked the artist for rare pieces.
This fame followed an almost incredible life story, that of a young man who moved to Berlin at the age of seventeen from Danzig to escape poverty and initially became a merchant; an autodidact who did not discover printmaking until later in life, was past forty when he achieved his breakthrough and finally became the director of Berlin's academy of arts. He was an important voice for the French community and a sought after art expert, and fathered a dynasty of artists. His daughters also successfully earned their living with art. This biography is so extensive that it seems as if he lived twelve lives.
Chodowiecki has few enthusiastic fans these days. He is viewed as petit bourgeois, outmoded, rigid. The exhibition intends to do away with these preconceptions and to encourage the rediscovery of one of the 18th century's most fascinating artists on the 300th anniversary of his birth.
It is part of the international anniversary celebrations 'Chodowiecki 300'.
