N 
J 
“won the firft prize in the academy. Be- 
ing of the Proteftant religion, he had, ac- 
cording to the {pirit of ‘the times, much 
trouble to enduré frorh the rage of mak- 
ing profelytes, by which the picus ladies . 
and their confeflors were intefled; but 
‘he adhered conftantly to the Proteftant 
religion, and often beat off the converters 
by repartees, when he was.not difpofed to 
argumenta tion. The crowning of his 
Sacrifice, a fubjeét equally interefting to 
the Chriltians of all parties, was\ probably 
the oceafion of his taking the highett 
concern in this favourite fubject of his 
‘youth, durmg his whole life. “For 
quite di ‘ferent reafon, the Family of Lat 
engaged him in perpetual trials, ho 
fuch a fubjeCt might be treated ina ble 
manner. His rafh and {prightly temper 
entangled him in many difagreeable affairs, 
out of which he always got happily by iis 
addrefs in bedily exercifes, and his’ pre- 
fence of mind. * In every thing he under- 
took, he was above the ordinary rate. 
He played with fuperior {kill at billiards, 
fenced ina mafterly manner, and as well 
with his left-hand as his right; knew 
how to manage a horfe with elegance, 
was an excellent fhot, and often hit a 
fwallow ora lark inits flight with a pif- 
tol. One of his moft intimate friends at 
Vienna, was Rafael Danner, of whom 
he {poke always with emotion till his 
deach, particularly when he looked at the 
portrait of his friend, or thewed it to 
others, 
The brilliant Court of the Auguftus, 
at Drefden, the colleétions of the monu- 
ments Of arts, and feveral of his country- 
men, drew him towards the end of 1739 
to Drefden; and from that time Saxony 
became his ane mother- country, where 
he only thought with a longing wifh of 
taly, BE Mes Bes he had always felt an in- 
expreffible defire to go. At» Drefden, 
Winkelmann and “Hagedorn became his 
friends; and the former is, perhaps, 
mofily indebted to Oefer for his tafte in 
the arts. Ocefer made-his eye fenfble of 
what is beautiful or deformed ; he taught 
him to fee, as he ufed to expres himfelf. 
‘The whole defcription of Rafael’s Ma- 
donna is taken from the mouth of Oefer. 
In 1744 he was called to Peterfburg, 
and was about’to go thither, when the 
death of the Empreis Anna fruftrated his 
éxpe€tations. During this period, he got 
acquainted at Drefden with MifsOrlebure, 
“whom he afterwards married, who had 
the moft beneficial influence upon his whole 
fubfequent life, and whcfe excellent qua- 
lities the old man often praifed with a 
; | Wecount of A. Ocfers 
- [Aug.1, 
thankipl emotion. Economy, a quality 
too often wanting in men of genius, was 
not 4 virtue of Oefer’s ; he feidom work- 
ed for money, except after he had {pent 
his laft ducat; whenever he could, he 
followed his own whims and ideas. In 
the feven years’ war, he for the moft 
pare lived at Dahlen, with the learned 
Count of Bunau, whofe apartments he 
painted, as he had been previoufly en- 
gaged todo. . This Count of Bunau -is 
a very high charaéter amongft the Ger- © 
man sith He wrote a Hiftory of ! 
the GN Empire,” full-of matter an 
a deep re! areas and bequeathed his lie 
brary, the catologue of which, in fix vo- 
lumes in quar to, is fill in high eftima-_ 
tion, to the Electoral Library. 
Towards the end. of the war, Oefer 
went to live at Leipzig, where he had al- 
ready made feveral valuawle acquaintances. 
The Ele&or Chriftian eftab! ifhing an 
academy vat Leipzig for the i improvement 
of atts, and leaving Oefer to chuie be- 
tween Drefden and Leipzig ; he preferr ed 
Leipzig, and was appointed Director of 
the Academy of Painting. He looked 
upon the time he pafled at Drefden, and 
the art years of his abode at Leipzig, as 
the beft period of his life, as well as of 
his performances of art. Saxony has 
{poiled me,”” be would often fay, in or- 
der to intimate that he often was obliged 
to comply with what modern tafe re- 
quired, and on that account he negleét- 
ed, in fome degree, the beautiful antique. | 
His old friends were ep ae fame opinion. 
He finihed, fome days before his death, 
a Head of Chrift, painted in oil, witch 
{till thows the unimpaired glow of its 
matter. The Sleeping Nymphs of Diana 
were his lak produ€tion, which he painted 
while Schnorr, one of his moft worthy 
diiciples, read to him fome fcenes of 
Schiller’s Don Carlos; they do not be- 
tray the trembling hand of a man of 
eighty-two years. He died the 18th, of 
March, 1799, and preferved his jovial, 
truly philofophic difpofition of mind to 
tie laft moment. - The former livelinefs 
of his youth had fubfided to an amiable - 
frank ferenity, which, as his charaéter 
was naturally open a honeft, made him 
a moft interelting character. As a man 
he was, per eae {till more remarkable than 
as an artift. His long-life was full of, 
original traits if ail kinds; and his friends 
found always fomething ‘ingenious, aa 
conic, cauftic or whimfical, to mention of 
oid Oefer. An anecdote of him when he 
was ftill, at Vienna, is, perhaps, worth. 
relating, The worm, which injured fo 
much 
