DeutschWeirotter, Franz Edmund (Innsbruck 1730 – Vienna 1771). Rock plate with German inscription “Fifth Suite of Varied Regions of Old Buildings consisting of 24 Sheet” in a property’s yard recaptured by the verdure. On the left gate with view at further ruins, on the right amphora with head. With large coat-of-arms dedication to archduchess Maria Christina princess of Hungary and Bohemia. Etching. Inscribed: Nach der Natur gezeichnet in Welschland / und in Kupfer geätzet von F. E. Weirotter. / In Wien zu finden in der k. k. Zeichnung und Kupferstecherakademie. / Zugeeignet von Ihrem unterthänigsten Diener / F. E. Weirotter Professor. 15.5 x 22 cm.
Title sheet of the suite Nagler 8 with views of ruins and regions in and around Rome, the Villa Adriana + Villa Borghese, of Viterbo, Livorno (Leghorn), and Lago di Bolzano. – On strong laid paper.
With Weirotter the landscape etching experienced a fine culmination and in 1766 Schmutzer, then director of the Vienna Academy, recommended Maria Theresa the appointment to the academy of the still young artist to take over the landscape subject there. According to Schmutzer’s report for the empress the artist in his mid-thirties made
“ with his etched landscapes
which would be bought willingly in England , the Netherlands , and Germany
4-5000 fl. annually ”.
The suggestion was accepted immediately by the Privy Council, because Weirotter otherwise “already would have a call to Saxony in hands”. But at his much too early death “his complete artistic bequest found no market in Vienna; it left to Paris. Connoisseurs and friends of his sheets
had to pay dearly for impressions of single sheets …
As etcher Weirotter counts to the most eminent artists … ”
(ADB XLI [1896], 520 f.),
whereby he “developed a truly astonishing activity on both the fields assigned to him (in Vienna), the landscape drawing and the etching,
and has given impetuses influencing still today ”
(Thieme-Becker XXXV [1942], 309, quoting Lützow).
His whole ability is reflected by the works after own invention as here. His admiration with the contemporaries follows from letters by and to Wille as the German art pope residing in Paris. So Winckelmann on occasion of Weirotter’s stay in Rome “Mister Weirotter has made me … a present with own works,
which I reckon among the best of the kind
… This young artist will be a credit to his native country”. And in glance backward at the preceded Paris period of training with Wille (1759/63) this to Hagedorn in Dresden “He is so completed with drawing that his drawings look far more effortless then his paintings”. And as collector the Leipsic banker Gottfried Winckler “I have no doubt, that Mr.
Weirotter will deliver to us many beautiful after the Italian voyage ”.
Quoted after Decultot and others as editors, Wille Correspondence, Tübingen 1999, pp. 314, 316, 318, each from 1764.
“ Weirotter – so Gerson, (Spread and Aftereffect of the Dutch Painting of the 17th Century, 2nd ed., 1983, p. 338 – worked also after P. Molijn, Jan van Goyen, Aert van der Neer – and Dietricy.
His own inventions are correspondingly Dutch . ”
Offer no. 15,141 / EUR 65. (c. US$ 91.) + shipping
“ I hereby confirm safe receipt of the two dias you so kindly sent us … Thank you so much for your kind help and splendid service ”
(Mrs. M. K., September 16, 2003)