Two men in a graveyard, one of them pointing to an ornate stone tomb, possibly to indicate the whereabouts of a third man to the second one. Etching attributed to J.W. Meil, 17--.

  • Meil, Johann Wilhelm, 1733-1805.
Date:
[between 1700 and 1799]
Reference:
47559i
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Description

The print contrasts two kinds of grave marker: on the right, an ornate stone tomb sculpted with swags and cherubim, and on the left a plain wooden staff with an A-shaped top. The two kinds of grave markers may represent the two men shown in the print, of whom the one on the left wears peasant clothes while the one on the right, holding keys, wears a black suit of more bourgeois appearance: the latter may be the choirmaster referred to by Nagler, loc. cit.

Publication/Creation

[Berlin?], [between 1700 and 1799]

Physical description

1 print : etching ; sheet 5.7 x 3.7 cm

Lettering

Der Kranke ; Le malade ; J: W. M. f.

Creator/production credits

Johann Wilhelm Meil was an engraver and illustrator whose influence led the better-known Daniel Chodowiecki to take up printmaking. Meil succeeded Chodowiecki as Director of the Academy of Arts at Berlin in 1801. See A. Griffiths and F. Carey, German printmaking in the age of Goethe, London 1994, pp. 48, 51

References note

Possibly one of the prints referred to by G.K. Nagler, Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon, Leipzig 1835-1852, vol. 10, p. 50, no. 18 ("Vier Blätter, welche auf viererlei Weise einen komischen Gegenstand vorstellen: wie ein Dorfkantor den Bauern sein tragisches gemälde erklärt, qu[arto?] 8."

Reference

Wellcome Collection 47559i

Type/Technique

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