April

About this artwork

collector's mark: Lugt 2228

Art Historical Context

**April** (1777) is a delicate etching by Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, a prolific Polish-German artist renowned for his intricate illustrations of 18th-century daily life. Working primarily in Berlin during the Enlightenment, Chodcki mastered the Rococo style's graceful lines and social vignettes, often embedding moral or satirical commentary in scenes of ordinary people This small print (107 66 mm) likely the renewal of spring, its titular month, and may belong to one of his popular series depicting the seasons or calendar motifs—a common theme in period art that blended utility with artistry...

About the Artist

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki · 1726–1801

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726–1801) was a German painter and printmaker of Polish-Huguenot descent who became the most celebrated graphic artist in 18th-century Germany. Born in Danzig (now Gdańsk), he created approximately 2,000 etchings that serve as an invaluable visual record of German bourgeois life during the Enlightenment. Largely self-taught, Chodowiecki moved to Berlin in 1743 and ach...