Porträt Johann Georg Sulzer (1720-1779)

Portrait of Johann Georg Sulzer. The Swiss theologian and philosopher Johann Georg Sulzer received lessons in theology at the Carolinum in Zurich, but also in mathematics, botany and philosophy. After his graduation in 1741 he was given the position of vicar in Maschwanden. Two years later he went to Magdeburg and became a teacher for the children of a wealthy merchant. He was a supporter of Christian Wolff’s philosophy (BS-III 218), in the style of which he published his first work in 1745: “Attempting some moral considerations on the works of nature.” He then moved to Berlin and became professor of mathematics at Joachimsthalschen Gymnasium in 1747. In 1750 he traveled to Switzerland together with Friedrich Gottlob Klopstock (BS-III 618). His first daughter married the famous painter Anton Graff (1736-1813) in 1771, who created the template for this leaf. A note about the steer of the etching is not provided, but that the template comes from the Swiss grave. The Gleimhaus in Halberstadt ascribes its specimen to the Zurich engraver, painter and publisher Heinrich Pfenninger (1749-1815). This can be confirmed by another specimen of the Herzog August library in Wolfenbüttel, since its leaf looks very similar to the present one, only the hatching next to the portrait is changed and the signatures are now in a board for the lettering. The technical implementation in the paper is interesting here: the portrait was executed as a puncture, frame and hatching next to it could be worked in the normal copper engraving technique, only it seems that Pfenninger had intervened in the radial needle. The University Library in Leipzig has two copies of this paper, as well as the Austrian National Library in Vienna and the Gleimhaus. Signature: A. Graff pinxit. Label: SULZER. (Stiftung Händel-Haus Halle Foundation)