Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki

One of the most famous and prolific German illustrators of his century, Chodowiecki left behind over 2000 etchings on 1000 plates and some 10,000 drawings and sketches. Chodowiecki focused almost exclusively on interior scenes - creating unique pictures of civilized contemporary bourgeois life and culture - rather than on ones of untamed landscapes and organic motifs such as trees. The human figure is central in his work. His values belonged to the Enlightenment and one immediately detects the influence of and the intimacy found in the domestic interiors of artists such as Grueze, Chardin, and even Hogarth, although he resisted any comparisons with this English artist.