1801.] 
much the fhips under the water, was then 
the general fubject of converfation, and 
every one was defirous to know it. 
Young Oefer imagined a quite peculiar 
kind of a worm, furnifhed at one ex- 
tremity with a kind of faw, andsat the 
other with a borer, and found out means 
to put this production of his own brain 
with a myfterious air into the hands of 
fome curious print-mongers. A few 
days afterwards a feller of curiofities 
brought him, with an important air, this 
‘new worm for copying, and recom- 
Smended to him to be filent ; and fo Oefer 
was fully occupied in copying his own 
worm, till the true one was brought to 
Vienna, with an ample defeription, ex- 
pofing the fuppofititious one to general ri- 
dicule. He uled to fpeak his opinion on 
all fubje&ts, particularly on politics, with 
great franknefs, and often with vehemence. 
In this ftyle he had probably fpoken 
with the Pruffian General Seydlitz, when 
he at the end of the feven-years war 
came home late in the night, threw 
away his hat and flick, and faid, ** Now, 
if General Seydlitz is not an honeft man 
and my friend, I muft lofe my head.’’ 
His family, of courfe, fpent the night in 
anxious expectation, and was firft tran- 
quillifed, when Seydlitz came the next 
morning with his ordinary kindnefs, 
fpoke of the arts and of works of arts, and 
then went gaily with him to walk. 
M. Oefer’s Jafting monuments. will 
be the pictures with which he has de- 
, corated St. Nicholas’s Church, at Leip- 
zig, one of the moft magnificent fabrics 
in Germany ; immenfe fums having been 
{pent in the laft twenty years by the ma- 
giftrates of Leipzig, in ornamenting 
the infide of this old Gothic ftru€ture. 
M. Oefer difplayed all the {kill of his 
invention and colouring in fix great pic- 
tures, the fubje&ts of which are taken 
from the Gofpel of St. John, and in 
adorning the battificrio, which is, indeed, 
the fineft to be found in Germany. The 
ftatue of the prefent Eleftor of Saxony, 
placed in the midft of a public walk be- 
fore the Gates of St. Peter, at Leipzig, 
has alfo, been executed by M. Oeler; 
and the ceilings in the great affembly- 
room, in a_ public edifice, at Leipzig, 
called the Merchants’ hall, (Gowand- 
haus) has been painted by the fame ar- 
tit, who, but for the tranfient faintnefsS 
of his colouring, would have excelled in 
(frefco painting. 
As Oefer had not ftudied in Italy, and, 
perhaps, by nature was little inclined to 
Monruix Mac, No, 76, 
-him even in his moft advanced age. 
Account of M. Ocfer. 33 
obferve pun€iuaily the rules of the. art, 
it would be unjuit to fubmit his works to 
the feverity of a critical examination. As 
for invention, they are not diflinguifhed 
by elevated thoughts, well chofen poe- 
tical orpaments, or happy allegories. 
*They are, befides, negligently drawn ; 
their difpofition is only calculated for 
compofing a whole, but does not extend 
to the fingle parts, in which good and 
bad, agreeable and offending, ftrokes, con- 
tinually and mutually balance each other, 
The expreffion wants life and force, and 
the whole management exaftnefs and ac- 
curacy ; the colouring ought to be ftronger 
in the light places and Jefs dark in the 
chiaro-fcure 3 but in other refpects his 
works are moft fweet and delightful 
images, and productions of innocent fim- 
plicity andof genius. He was undoubt- 
edly a man endowed with the greateft ta- 
lents, and, if compared with Mengs, we 
would fay, that Mengs has given a won- 
derful “example of the cultivation of in- 
different talents, by the. greateft efforts 
and by continual affiduity, but that 
Oefer had arrived at the point where he 
‘ftood, as it were playing, and by the 
free favour of nature. If he had lived 
in times more favourable to the arts,-and 
had enjoyed the advantage of inftructing 
himfelf in a good ‘fchool, he would, 
without doubt, have flione among the 
firft artifts. In every part of his works 
we are ftruck with the difplay of an emi- 
nent difpofition for the arts. »He is of a 
free and eafy fpirit, feldom fublime, but 
always rich in ideas, and adorned with 
an amiable grace, which attended him 
through his whole life,-and remained with 
He 
fhews us children as {weet and natural as 
thofe of Corregio; young girls with the 
foft and lovely feminine grace of Albano’s 
nymphs; charming land{capes coloured 
with the purple of Aurora, or tinged 
with the glowing red. of the evening. 
The negligence of management could ea- 
fily have been changed by culture into 
that beautiful facility which is fo much 
valued in the works of many a great ar- 
tift. Lightand fhade are oftendiltributed 
by him too arbitrarily, but are however, 
for the moft part, like the drapery, em- 
ployed in large maffes and to an agiee- 
able effe&t. Another proof of the extent 
of his faculties, his free fpirit and the 
eafinefs to bend his mind to every line of 
-bufmefs, may be taken from his etched 
plates, fome works in marble, and the 
architectural ornaments in the inner- 
k \ part 
