Portret van Karl von Rotteck

About this artwork

height 147 mm x width 96 mm

Art Historical Context

### Portrait of Karl von Rotck by Karl Barth This intimate steel engraving, titled *ret van Karl von Rotteck*, captures the likeness of the German liberal thinker, historian, and politician Karl Rotteck (1775–1840). Created by engraver Karl Barth between 8 and 1853, the small-scale work measures just 147 mm high by 96 mm wide, making it a perfect example of the portable prints that brought prominent figures into homes and scholarly circles across Europe. Steel engraving, a revolutionary technique of the early 19th century, replaced fragile copper plates with durable steel, enabling finer lin...

About the Artist

Karl Barth · 1787–1853

Karl Barth (also known as Carl Barth or Johann Carl Barth, 1787–1853) was a versatile German artist who worked as a copperplate engraver, draughtsman, painter, illustrator, and portrait engraver during the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. Born in Eisfeld in the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen and dying in Kassel, Barth exemplified the multi-talented artist-craftsman of the Roman...