Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Line engraving by Carl August Schwerdgeburth, 1832.

1832

1 print : engraving

Carl August Schwerdgeburth's portrait of Goethe "is fully described in a letter from Schwerdgeburth to W.Müller, the author of Goethes letze literarische Tätigkeit (published by Otto Heuer in Jahrbuch des freien deutschen Hochstifts, Frankfurt 1916-25, pp. 179-1 87). Schwerdgeburth had known Goethe well since 1816, and in 1831 Goethe had asked him to sit for J.J. Schmeller so that his portrait could be included in an album being made for him of his Weimar circle. This emboldened Schwerdgeburth to ask Goethe in turn to sit for him, but he met with a refusal. During this interview he managed to memorise Goethe's features well enough to draw a portrait on his return home. He managed to get this shown to Goethe, who was so pleased that he agreed to give him the extra sittings he needed. He was even more delighted when Schwerdgeburth said that he intended to engrave it in the line manner, rather than redraw it as a lithograph. He gave him helpful advice that he should not let it out of his sight before publication in case someone pirated it, and ensured that the drawing was purchased for the ducal collection in Weimar (where it is now in the Goethe-Museum: see Emil Schaeffer, 'Goethe, seine äussere Erscheinung', rev. ed. by Jörn Göres, Frankfurt 1980, no.78). The final sitting for retouching took place on 24 January 1832, but Goethe died on 22 March, five months before the plate was completed."--Antony Griffiths and Frances Carey, 'German printmaking in the age of Goethe', London 1994, no. 150. The previous attribution of this print to Charlotte Amalia Schwerdgeburth would therefore appear to be mistaken

R. Burgess, Portraits of doctors & scientists in the Wellcome Institute, London 1973, no. 1156.12

Wellcome Collection 3629i