Columbus legt zijn plan voor aan de Portugese koning
Medium
etching
Dimensions
58; 95
About this artwork
collector's mark: Lugt 2228
Art Historical Context
Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, a prolific German artist of the late Enlightenment era, captures a pivotal moment in history with his 1790 etching *Columbus legt zijn plan aan de Portugese koning (Columbus Presents His Plan to the Portuguese King). intimate work, measuring just 95mm by 58mm, depicts Columbus earnestly pitching his daring voyage westward to the skeptical Portuguese monarch, João II, around 1485. Chodowiecki, renowned for his Rococo-influenced genre scenes and historical vignettes, often illustrated such episodes from the Age of Discovery, blending narrative drama with meticulous d...
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...