GERMAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



academy. He fiiperintcndcd the education of a great num- 

 ber of fludents in his mature age, and at the clofe of the lail 

 century, was as great at Vienna, as Wille in Paris. 



The beft of Schmutzer"s engra\-ings are the portraits of 

 Don Emanuel, of the illuftrious family of Defva'ls, and 

 .Tofeph von Sonnenfels, both fmall ; Martin de Mi-ytens, 

 the celebrated painter, after a picture by himfclf, dated 

 1756; C. G. E. Deiti-icr, another celebrated arlill, after 

 the fame, dated 1765 ; Jofeph Wenccflaus, prince of 

 Lichtenfteiii, aiter V. I'anti ; the ennpefor Francis I., after 

 von Liotard, dated 1769; the companion to which ib tlie 

 einprefs Maria Thercla ; and two portraits of prince Kau- 

 nitz, one after J. Steiner, and the other aftrr Hagenauer, 

 dited 1786, in a circle; a much eftecmed and rare piece 

 of engraving. 



The ahovi' are all in fulio. We now jiroceed to fcleft 

 frem hj« hiilorical engravings, " Uiyiies difcovering Ally. 

 anax and Andromache,'' after the prince of Saxe Tefchen, 

 dedicated to n;ail,ime the archduchefs ; " Mutius Scjvola 

 before Porfeiina," tronr a picture by Rubens in the cabinet 

 of th? prince KauuUz, dated 177H ; " St. Gregory re- 

 fufing to admit the emperor Theodolius into the Church," 

 after the fame mailer, both plates in folio, and of learned ex- 

 ecution ; " Venus riling from the Sea,'' from a pifture by 

 Rubens, in the gallery of count Schoenborn at Vienna, beau- 

 tifully finiflied, and four large and interefting landfcape views 

 at Neuwaldeck and Dornbath, in which occurs the tomb of 

 Roufleau, and the ftatues of the Gladiator and the god Mars. 



George Frederic Schmidt was born at Berlin A. D. 1712, 

 and died in the fame city in 177J. Schmidt was deilined by 

 Fortune to be a tradefman, but the voice of Talle, (fays 

 Huber,) proclaimed him an artifl. His pcrfeverance, after 

 various llruggles, at length, furmounted the obftacles that 

 oppofed themfelves to the gratilication of his natural pro- 

 penfities, and he was admitted a Undent in the fchool of 

 George Patcl Bufch at Berlin, from whence his ambition, 

 rather than his purfe, in the year 1736, carried him to Paris, 

 ■where he frequented the fchool of Nicholas de Larmeflin, who 

 honeftly and earneftly feconded the profefTional wiihcs of 

 Schmidt, by imparting to his dii^'iple all that it was pofllble 

 to communicate of his knowledge of the art of engraving. 



In the year 1742 he was admitted a member of the 

 French academy of Arts, although (which at that time was 

 an important exception) he was of the Proteltant religion. 

 At this time Schmidt, Priefler, and Wille (of whom the 

 reader will find an account under FiSENCit School of Engra- 

 vers) were diilinguidied at Paris by their fuperior merit in 

 engraving, and were bound together by the tics of friend- 

 fhip, while ;here reigned between tliem a noble profelhonal 

 emulation. Schmidt had recommended hinifelf to the friendly 

 regard of the celebrated Rigaud by the very fine portrait of 

 P. Mignard, which he engraved for his reception into the 

 Royal Academy, and Rigaud contributed to his fpreading re- 

 putation, by feeking and obtaining for him fuch engage- 

 ments as were analogous to his wilhes and talents. 



lu two years, however, or a little more, he was fum- 

 moned to Berlin, and nominated engraver royal, and in the 

 year 1757 he was fent for to Pelerfburg by the emprefs 

 Elizabeth, to engrave her portrait, which he executed (with 

 many others, while he remained in Ruifia) to the great fatis- 

 faftion, not only of the connoiflcurs of the court, but of 

 the beft judges throughout the Ruffian empire. 



On his return to Berlin, in 1762, he began to diftinguifli 

 hinifelf in a new career of engraving, by etching in a piftu- 

 refquc ftyle after the works of Rembrandt, in which he 

 imitated Rembrandt's own mode of exeeution, but generally 

 fcit-in his plates to deeper tone*. 



The engravings of Schmidt amount in number to nearly 



two-hundred, beiide I he vignettes which he did for the works 

 of the king of Pruflia. Count Craven publiilied a cata- 

 logue raifonnce of the whole, from which we have thouglit the 

 following moll worthy of feleclion, as fpecimensof the varr- 

 ous powers of o;i'-artill. 



Parlrails perfjimal rhlffy •u.'Uh the Gravfr, r.nd of foUo di- 



mrifioiu CouHaiitine Scarlatli, prince of Moldavia, a rare 



and fme print, dated 1738; Charles Gabriel dc Tubiercs 

 dc Caylus, bidiop of Auxerre, after Fontaine ; I.onis de 

 la Tour d'Auvergiic comte d'Evreux, after H. Rigaud, 

 dated 1742; .loh.innes Rajitilla Rolfeau, after J. Aved, 

 dated 1740; Chriile.-, de St. Alvin, archbifi.op of Cambray, 

 after H. Rigaud, dated 1742; Maurice Quinten de la 

 Tour, from a picture by himfelf, dated 1742; Jean Bap- 

 tise Sllva, a celebrit. d phyfician, after Rigaud, dated 

 174- ; Pierre Migiiard, firft painter to the French king, 

 after his friend Hyaciathe Rigaud, engraved in 1 744, for 

 Schmidt's reception into the academy, a piece regarded by 

 connoilfeuis as a chef d'ouvre of the mailers, and the flefh 

 of which is engraved in a ityle fo foft and mellow, that it 

 has been emphatically laid to be rather painted than en- 

 graved. The four lull are in large folio. 



Afler his return from Paris to his native city, Schmidt 

 engraved the portraits of Antony Pefnc, firft pa'inter to the 

 king of Pruflia, and Samuel Baro liber de Cocceii, both ia 

 tolio, dated 1751 and 1752, and reckoned among the bell 

 portraits from the graver of Schmidt. 



Johannes Theodore Eller, aulic-counfellor, &c. after 

 Pefne ; and Louis Albertene de Brandt barcm de Grapen- 

 dorf, after le Sueur, are a very rare and beautiful pair of 

 portraits of the folio fize. 



Among the bell portraits which our artiil engraved at 

 Peterfhurg, are ihofe of Michel de Woronzow, count of 

 the Holy Roman empire, and Nicholas Ellerhazv de Ga- 

 lantha, both in large folio, after L. Tocque, aiid dated 

 1758 ; Pierre Comte de Schuallow, grand-maftcr of thir 

 PrufTian artillery, from the life, and dated 1760; the em- 

 prefs Ellzabetli of Ruflla, a whole length figure, with ac- 

 companiments of the imperial colhmie, after 1„ Tocque, 

 which Huber calls a fuperb print, more efpecially for tlie 

 execution of the accelTory parts, it is dated in 1758 ; cour>t 

 Cyrillus de Rafumowlky, after L. Tocque, and Jacobus 

 Mounfey, from a piclure by Schmidt himfelf, dated 176a, 

 are rare and beautiful, and M. de Katt, field marflial and 

 miniller of Hate to the king of Pruffia ; the lall portrait 

 from the graver of Schmidt, the head in which is by liim- 

 felf, but the reft finilhed by Bergere the elder. 



Among his hiftorical iuid fancy works, may be diftin- 

 guilhcd a pair of "The fair Greek,"' and " The amorous 

 Turk,'' the two firft plates which Schmidt engraved under 

 Larmeffin at Paris ; " Tabagee Flamaode," &c. in folio, 

 after Oftade, engraved in a ilyle refembling that of VilT- 

 cher, and dated 1757 ; " The Virgin Mary fitting with the 

 Infants Chrill and St. John," after Vandyke, dated 1773 I 

 " The Virgin at Prayers," after S. Ferrata ; " The Prefen. 

 tation in the Temple,' afler Pietro Tefta, for the Imperial 

 gallery at Peterlhnrg ; " Alexander and Philip the Phyli- 

 cran,'' alter Annib.d Carraeci, engraved in imitation of 

 the hiftorical ftyle of Gerard Audran, a: Berlin 1769, artd 

 •' Timocles juftified by Alexarder," tompaninn to the 

 above, and after the fame painter, both in large folio. 



In imitation of the Tnfle uf Rembrandt. — A half length of 

 a bearded old man with a feathered bonnet, defigned by the 

 engraver, and an old woman in profile, after Rembrandt, 

 companion to the above ; bull of an Oriental in the ftyle of 

 CalliglitJnej dated 1750; bull of a young man in a Rem- 



iraodt 



