Nijverheid
Medium
etching
Dimensions
30; 60
About this artwork
ets; proefdruk
Art Historical Context
**Nijverheid** is a delicate etching by Daniel Nikolaus Chowiecki, a prolific German artist renowned for his intricate illustrations of 18th-century life. Created in 1784, this tiny measures just 60mm high by 30mm wide, showcasing Chodowiecki's mastery miniature-scale printmaking. The title, Dutch for "Industry" or "Diligence likely evokes Enlightenment ideals of hard work and moral virtue, central to his oeuvre. Chodowiecki, often called the "German Hogarth," bridged Rococo elegance and emerging Neoclassicism through his etchings, which numbered in the thousands. He specialized in vivid genr...
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...