View source for Daniel Chodowiecki

{{short description|German painter and printmaker (1726–1801)}}

[[File:Adolf Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel 018.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Daniel Chodowiecki, painted posthumously by [[Adolph von Menzel]] in 1859]]
'''Daniel Niklaus Chodowiecki''' (16 October 1726 – 7 February 1801) was a [[Germany|German]]<ref>[https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/Chodowiecki-Daniel;3885657.html Chodowiecki Daniel - Encyklopedia PWN]</ref> painter and [[printmaker]] of [[Huguenot]] and Polish ancestry, who is most famous as an [[Etching|etcher]]. He spent most of his life in [[Berlin]], and became the director of the [[Berlin Academy of Art]].

==Family==
He was born in the city of [[Danzig]] (Gdańsk) in [[Poland]], he kept close to the [[Huguenot]] scene, due to his ancestry.

According to Chodowiecki himself, his Polish [[szlachta|nobleman]] paternal ancestor Bartłomiej Chodowiecki lived in the 16th century in [[Greater Poland]], though this is not confirmed by independent records. Gottfried Chodowiecki, Daniel's father, was a tradesman in Danzig and his mother, Henriette Ayrer, of [[Switzerland|Swiss]] ancestry, was a Huguenot. Daniel's grandfather Christian was also a Danzig tradesman, who had moved his business there from [[Toruń]]. When his father died, both Daniel (aged 16) and his younger brother Gottfried Chodowiecki went to live with their uncle in Berlin, who offered to educate them. In Germany Daniel received artistic training from the painter Haid in [[Augsburg]]. His brother also became a painter.

{{anchor|Jeannette Papin}}
He and his wife Jeanne Barez (1726–1785) had three daughters, [[Jeannette Papin|Jeannette]] (b. 1761, married the French reformed preacher Jacques Papin), [[Suzanne Chodowiecka|Suzanne]] (1763&ndash;1819) and Henriette (1770&ndash;1880). Jeannette's daughter Marianne Gretschel née Chodowiecka Papin (1794&ndash;1870) and her son Heinrich Papin (1786&ndash;1839) also became artists.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.the-athenaeum.org/people/detail.php?ID=8227|title=Jeannette Papin (German, 1761 – 1835) – The Athenaeum|website=www.the-athenaeum.org|access-date=3 August 2017|archive-date=28 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170428161048/https://www.the-athenaeum.org/people/detail.php?ID=8227|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Art==
[[File:Chodowiecki Minuet in the park.jpg|thumb|300px|''Minuet in the park'', 1760s ([[National Museum, Warsaw|National Museum]] in [[Warsaw]])]]
[[File:Chodowiecki Raubdruck 1781.jpg|thumb|300px|Cartoon [[etching]] by Chodowiecki, 1781, on the [[Partition of Poland]]]]
Soon Daniel was able to earn a living by painting. He was admitted to the Berlin Academy in 1764 and became vice-director under [[Bernhard Rode]] in 1788. He found his true calling and became the most famous German graphic artist of his time. His works include several thousand [[etching]]s, usually rather small, and many drawings and paintings. His book illustrations embrace almost all the great classics. His prints represent in great detail the life of the bourgeoisie during the ''Zopfstil'' period, a time between [[Rococo]] and [[Classicism]]. In 1797 Chodowiecki was appointed director of the Academy of Arts in Berlin, where he died on 7 February 1801. The bulk of his work was in illustrating scientific books by [[Johann Bernhard Basedow|Basedow]], [[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon|Buffon]], [[Lavater]], [[Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi|Pestalozzi]] and others. He also painted many portraits of Polish nobility and was interested in Huguenot and Polish history as well, making some paintings on the subjects. 
He was in tune with the developing spirit of the age, and many works reflect the cult of [[sensibility]], and then the revolutionary and German [[nationalism|nationalist]] feelings of the end of the century.

In [[printmaking]], he is credited with the invention of the deliberate ''remarque'', a small sketch on a plate lying outside the main image. These were originally little sketches or doodles by artists, not really meant to be seen, but Chodowiecki turned them into "bonus items" for collectors.

Chodowiecki, though speaking only French and German<ref>Hartmut Boockmann, Ostpreußen und Westpreußen, Siedler 2002, {{ISBN|3-88680-212-4}}</ref> (due to his offices in the Huguenot French community in Berlin he often spoke French), many times also declared his Polish allegiance and had his son Isaac Heinrich, born in Berlin, painted as a very young child with a Polish outfit and haircut. After the [[Partitions of Poland]] Chodowiecki wrote to Gräfin Solms-Laubach: "From my father's side I am Polish, a descendant of a brave nation which will soon vanish".<ref name="auto">Charlotte Steinbrücker: Listy D. Chodowieckiego. Berlin, 1921.</ref> In a letter to [[:pl:Józef Łęski]], a Polish astronomer, he wrote: ''"I consider it an honour to be a genuine Pole, even though I am now living in Germany"''.<ref name="auto"/> Because of his mother's and his wife's Huguenot descent he was very close to the Huguenots of Berlin. Nearly all his life and career was spent in Germany, writing in German and living in Berlin from the age of almost 17.
{{Css Image Crop|Image = DAN-24-Danzig-1MIL Mark (1923).jpg|bSize = 235|cWidth = 235|cHeight = 129|oTop = 2|oLeft = 0|Location = right|Description= Chodowiecki depicted on a 1 million [[German Papiermark#German Papiermark of Danzig|papiermark]] note (1923)}}
One of his most popular books is the "Journey from Berlin to Danzig" ({{langx|de|"Die Reise von Berlin nach Danzig"}}, 1773) with many illustrations. He purchased a horse rather than going by stage coach. This was his first return after 30 years absence and he went specifically to see his elderly mother and sisters in Danzig again. He made only one more trip to Danzig afterwards, to his mother's funeral. He describes and illustrates towns and people in Pomerania and Prussia on the way.

Chodowiecki is buried at the ''Französischer Friedhof'' cemetery in Berlin.

==References==
<references/>
*Wolfgang Plat, ''Die Reise nach Danzig, Mit Daniel Chodowiecki durch Pommern''

==External links==
{{commons}}
*[http://www.chodowiecki.com/en.php A 2020 film on Daniel Chodowiecki.]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110604121145/http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=browse;dept=prints;method=artist;searchtype=1;term=Chodowiecki,%20Daniel%20Nikolaus 541 images of works at the LA County Museum of Art]
*[http://www.malarze.com/artysta.php?id=55 Gallery of works by Chodowiecki at www.malarze.com]
*[http://www.malarze.com/artysta.php?id=286 Gallery of works by Chodowiecki's brother - Gottfried at www.malarze.com]
*[http://www.bildindex.de/rx/apsisa.dll/registerinhalt?sid=&cnt=&rid=2&aid=*&query=+xdbpics%3Aalle%20+r1a_name%3A'C*'%20%20+r1a_name%3A%22chodowiecki,%20daniel%20nikolaus%22&no=1&count=50&sort=no&rid=2 Works at www.bildindex.de] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930181302/http://www.bildindex.de/rx/apsisa.dll/registerinhalt?sid=&cnt=&rid=2&aid=%2A&query=+xdbpics%3Aalle%20+r1a_name%3A%27C%2A%27%20%20+r1a_name%3A%22chodowiecki%2C%20daniel%20nikolaus%22&no=1&count=50&sort=no&rid=2 |date=2007-09-30 }}
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Chodowiecki, Daniel Nicolas}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Bernhard Rode]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Director<br>[[Berlin Academy of Art]]|years=1797–1801}}
{{s-aft|after=}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chodowiecki, Daniel}}
[[Category:1726 births]]
[[Category:1801 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Gdańsk]]
[[Category:Polish Calvinist and Reformed Christians]]
[[Category:18th-century Polish–Lithuanian painters]]
[[Category:Polish male painters]]
[[Category:Immigrants to the Kingdom of Prussia]]
[[Category:Painters from the Kingdom of Prussia]]
[[Category:18th-century German painters]]
[[Category:18th-century German male artists]]
[[Category:German male painters]]
[[Category:People from Royal Prussia]]
[[Category:German printmakers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Prussian Academy of Arts]]