Historians 18th century
Paul Allen is an American editor, historian, and poet.
He attended Brown University and later moved to Philadelphia, where he was editor of The Port Folio, The Gazette of the United States, and The Federal Republican. Success came to Allen in Baltimore, where he served as editor until his death at the Baltimore Morning Chronicle newspaper. Paul Allen also joined the Delphic Club, and his epic poem Noah (1821) was a success.
Pierre-François Hugues d'Hancarville, better known as Baron d'Hancarville, was an art historian, writer, and adventurer who lived most of his life in Italy.
To advance from the merchant class to high society, he studied mathematics, physics, history, literature, ancient languages, and English, Italian, and German. Traveling in Europe, he presented himself as an aristocrat under various names. Under the name Baron d'Hancarville, he was known as a connoisseur and art dealer, which is apparently why he was approached by Sir William Hamilton (1731-1803), who was ambassador to the British embassy in Naples and had amassed a large collection of ancient vases. Before selling this collection to the British Museum in 1772, Hamilton asked d'Hancarville for help in creating a complete catalog of it in descriptions and illustrations. The baron also wrote a detailed essay.
This catalog, entitled The Complete Collection of Antiquities from the Cabinet of Sir William Hamilton, is itself a neoclassical masterpiece in French and English. Antique vases have never before been depicted with such precision and aestheticism.
Jacques Basnage de Beauval was a French theologian and historian, diplomat and writer.
His father was a prominent lawyer and his grandfather and great-grandfather were pastors, Jacques studied theology and languages at the Academy of Saumur, then at Geneva and Sedan. In 1676, Jacques Basnage was appointed pastor at Rouen during the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was forced to flee France for Holland, where he worked as a theologian, polemicist, historian, and diplomat in the service of the Grand Pensioner Hensius.
In 1717, on behalf of Holland, Basnage was sent to sign the treaty of the Triple Alliance (France, Holland, England). In the Annals of the United Provinces (1719-1726), compiled from the peace negotiations held at Münster, he displays breadth of vision, wisdom, and impartiality.
About 1719 Jacques Basnage was appointed historiographer of the Dutch states. He wrote several books on the Bible, the history of the Church, and the history of the Jewish people. Among the best known of these are his History of the Religion of the Protestant Denominations (1690), History of the Church of Jesus Christ to the Present Time (1699), written from Protestant positions, and History of the Jews (1706), as well as Jewish Antiquities, or Critical Notes on the Republic of the Jews (1713).
Platon Petrovich Beketov (Russian: Платон Петрович Бекетов) was a Russian publisher, book printer, historian and collector.
Platon Beketov was born into an old Russian landowning family, from 1798 he lived in Moscow, where he became interested in collecting and in 1801 opened his own printing house, which was considered one of the best in Moscow. Beketov raised the national printing industry to a worthy level. His books were made with great artistic taste and elegance, more than a hundred beautiful editions in all. A number of editions of Russian authors were printed here, among them Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky, Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev, Mikhail Matveyevich Kheraskov and others. The printing house also printed the magazines "Friend of Enlightenment" (1805) and "Inventory of Books Printed at the Dependence of Platon Beketov's Printing House" (1806).
Beketov was passionate about old manuscripts, especially with portrait miniatures and autographs, and portraits of famous contemporaries. He collected an entire picture gallery, which formed the basis of two of his major projects - the publication "Pantheon of Russian Authors" (1801-1802) and the collection "Collection of Portraits of Russians, famous..." (1821-1824). (1821-1824). The texts for them were written by the publisher's friend and distant relative N.M. Karamzin.
Platon Petrovich Beketov was widely known in the circles of the Russian intellectual elite of the first half of the XIX century. In 1811 he was elected chairman of the Moscow Society of Russian History and Antiquities, a position he held until 1823.
Jeremy Belknap is an American clergyman, historian, and author.
Belknap was educated at Harvard College and has devoted his life to the Congregationalist Church. In addition, he served for many years as secretary to the New Hampshire Ministerial Convention. He traveled throughout the state in his service and at the same time collected information on New Hampshire history. The result of these years of work was The History of New Hampshire, published in three volumes between 1784 and 1792. This work is the first modern history written by an American.
Belknap also wrote and published American Biographies in two volumes (1794 and 1798), which brought him to the attention of intellectuals across the country. He became a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Belknap was also a founding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the first such society in America.
Joachim Bouvet was a French Jesuit monk and missionary who worked in China.
Joachim Bouvet was one of six Jesuit mathematicians chosen by Louis XIV to travel to China as his envoys and work as missionaries and scholars. In 1687 in Beijing, Bouvet began this work, especially in mathematics and astronomy, and in 1697 the Chinese emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) sent him as ambassador to the French king. Kangxi expressed his wish that Bouvet should bring more missionary scientists with him. Thus, in addition to his scholarly work, Bouvet was also an accomplished diplomat and served as a liaison between the Chinese Emperor Kangxi and King Louis XIV of France.
Bouvet brought to France a manuscript describing Kangxi's life with an eye for diplomatic subtleties, as well as a collection of drawings depicting graceful Chinese figures in traditional and ceremonial dress. The first French edition of The Historical Portrait of the Emperor of China was published in Paris in 1697, and was subsequently translated and published in other languages. And Bouvet returned to China in 1699 with ten new missionaries and a collection of King Louis XIV's engravings for Emperor Kangxi. He remained in China for the rest of his life.
Edward Wedlake Brayley was a British writer, historian, archaeologist and topographer.
Notable among Brayley's works are A Topographical History of Surrey, Lambeth Palace, Topographical Sketches of Brighthelmston, and Londiniana. Braley often collaborated with the topographer and antiquarian John Britton in the creation of his books. The text in his books was illustrated with woodcuts and engraved steel plates.
Britton and Brayley's long-standing collaboration also resulted in the popular series "Beauties of England and Wales," published from 1801 to 1818. Several volumes were planned, dealing with the history and topography of England and Wales, illustrated with views of picturesque scenes and important places. The series eventually expanded to twenty-five large volumes, published over a period of nearly twenty years.
Charles Brockden Brown was an American writer, historian, and editor.
Brown took up literary endeavors early in life. In 1798, his first mystical and psychological novel, Wieland, was published. Brown also wrote the novels Ormond (1799), Edgar Huntley (1799), and Arthur Merwin (1799-1800).
Brown's works interweave fiction, history, fantasy, psychology, and liberal politics. Brown is considered the father of the American novel. His American-style Gothic novels pioneered and paved the way for two of the greatest early American writers, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Charles Brown also wrote a great deal of journalism on political, educational, and historical topics.
Edward Browne was a British physician, president of the College of Physicians, traveler, historian and writer.
Edward was the eldest son of the famous British scientist Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), received a Bachelor of Medicine degree from Cambridge later and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Oxford, and became a member of the Royal Society. In addition to medicine, his subjects of study included botany, literature, and theology. He lived in London and traveled throughout Europe visiting museums, churches, and libraries (Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Germany). In 1673 he published an account of his travels in Eastern Europe, notable for its scrupulous accuracy.
Edward Browne also published two other works: a historical treatise and biographies of Themistocles and Sertorius. He was physician to King Charles II of England and left many manuscript notes on medicine. The chronicle of his journey through Thessaly is a unique and valuable source of information about the region in the second half of the 17th century. He was admitted to the College of Physicians in 1675 and served as its president from 1704 to 1708.
Patrick Browne was an Irish physician and historian, traveler, naturalist and botanist.
Patrick Browne studied medicine in Paris, graduated from the University of Reims, continued his studies in Leiden, and then worked as a doctor at St. Thomas' Hospital in London. Subsequently, he lived for many years in the Caribbean, in Antigua, Santa Cruz, Montserrat and Jamaica, where he practiced medicine. He devoted all his spare time to the study of the natural history of the island. In 1771, Brown returned to Mayo County.
In 1756, Brown published A Civil and Natural History of Jamaica, his most significant work in terms of Carl Linnaeus's botanical nomenclature, which included new names for 104 genera.
Romeyn de Hooghe was a Dutch painter, sculptor, engraver and caricaturist of the late Baroque period, writer and philosopher.
Hooghe became famous for his political caricatures of King Louis XIV of France and propaganda pamphlets in support of William of Orange. He portrayed the war against the French monarch and his allies as a struggle between freedom and religious despotism.
Romeyn de Hooghe was a superb engraver and created over 3,500 engravings during his lifetime. His most important work is Hieroglyphica of Merkbeelden der oude volkeren (Hieroglyphics or Symbols of the Ancient Peoples), where he appeared not only as a consummate master of engraving, but also as a historian, talented writer and philosopher. This book has long been regarded in Europe as one of the most authoritative sources on classical mythology. It contains 64 engravings illustrating all stages of the narrative of myths, ancient cults and beliefs, and the interpretation of scripture, a guide to medieval Europe.
Romeyn de Hooghe also illustrated books and painted large panels. During his lifetime he was widely recognized as a painter and sculptor not only in his own country but also in other European countries.
Jean-Benjamin de La Borde was a French composer, music historian, publisher and financier.
De La Borde played the violin and trained in composition. In 1748 he composed his first small opera, and in 1751 his opera Le Rossignol ou Le Mariage secret (The Nightingale or The Secret Marriage) was staged in Paris. The prolific composer went on to compose an average of 30 operas a year for 30 years, mostly of a comic nature.
De La Borde was also a prominent cultural figure of his time: he authored Essays on Music, a four-volume collection of songs for solo voice, and initiated the publication of the General and Private Description of France (1781-96).
For several years de La Borde was valet and favorite of Louis XV; he refused to leave France during the Revolution and was arrested and executed by guillotine on July 22, 1794.
François Robichon de la Guérinière was the French founder of classical dressage and a teacher.
La Guérinière was a pupil of Antoine de Vandale. In 1715, he received the title of royal knight and opened a riding school in Paris. At his school, de la Guérinière taught not only riding, but also "the complete science of the horse." De la Guérinière wrote two books, L'École de Cavalerie (1731) and Eléments de Cavalerie (1740), which are still considered the "Equestrian Bible," in which he devotes many pages to the care of the horse. Illustrations include plans and diagrams, anatomical and medical images, portraits of the author's most distinguished pupils, and a skeleton of a horse.
La Guérinière had a major influence on horse training tactics, riding and dressage practice. He is considered the founder of modern riding, his style is a clear reflection of the clarity, elegance and rigor of his teachings. In 1730, de la Guérinière was appointed director of the Tuileries Academy and held this position for the rest of his life.
Francis Douce was a British antiquarian and curator of the British Museum, historian and writer.
Francis Douce studied law, but he loved books much more. He became a prominent member of the Society of Antiquaries and served as Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum from 1799 to 1811, but was forced to resign because of a quarrel with one of the trustees.
Francis Douce was an avid book collector and bibliophile. After leaving his post at the museum, he concentrated on adding to his collection of antiquarian books and manuscripts. And he also wrote scholarly works, most notably Illustrations of Shakespeare and Ancient Manners (1807) and A Dissertation on the Various Variants of the Dance of Death (1833). When Douce died in 1834, he left his extensive and valuable book collection of over 19,000 printed works to the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
William Dunlap was an American playwright, theater director, artist, and historian.
William Dunlap was a pioneer of the young country's theater. He directed two of New York City's earliest and most famous theaters, the John Street Theater and the Theater in the Park. During his lifetime he directed over sixty plays, most of which were adaptations or translations of French and German works. But among them were some original ones based on American themes with American characters.
In 1832 Dunlap published A History of the American Theater in two volumes. In 1825, Dunlap co-founded the National Academy of Design and taught at its school. Even today, Dunlap is best known for his encyclopedic three-volume History of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Design in the United States. The book was published in 1834 and is now an invaluable source of information about artists, collecting, and artistic endeavors in the country of that historical period.
Joseph Fourier, full name Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier, was a French mathematician and physicist and historical Egyptologist.
Fourier famously accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his Egyptian expedition in 1798 as a scientific advisor and was appointed secretary of the Institute of Egypt. During the occupation of Egypt, Fourier worked in the French administration, supervised archaeological excavations, and worked to shape the educational system.
But the main thing in Fourier's life was science. Back in France, he studied the mathematical theory of heat conduction, established the partial differential equation governing heat diffusion, and solved it using an infinite series of trigonometric functions. Fourier showed that heat diffusion obeyed simple observable physical constants that could be expressed mathematically. His work The Analytic Theory of Heat (1822) had a great influence on the development of physics and pure mathematics.
Joseph Fourier was a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, the French Academy, a foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Royal Society of London.
Johann Gottfried Gruber was a German critic and literary historian.
A graduate of the University of Leipzig, Gruber was later appointed professor at the University of Wittenberg, and in 1815 he became professor of philosophy at Halle. Gruber is the author of numerous historical and philosophical works.
Willem Jacob Herreyns, the Younger, was a Flemish painter of history subjects and portraits. He is regarded as one of the last painters in the tradition of the Flemish Baroque and the last follower of Peter Paul Rubens. Herreyns’ work was very highly regarded in his time. His religious compositions stand in the Rubens tradition. Herreyns is considered a draughtsman with a precise line, but his work shows a certain coldness and lacks originality.
David Hume, birth name David Home, was an 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian, and essayist.
He is best known for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. Hume saw philosophy as an inductive, experimental science of human nature. Taking as his model the scientific method of the English physicist Isaac Newton and drawing on the epistemology of the English philosopher John Locke, Hume tried to describe how reason works in obtaining what is called knowledge. He concluded that no theory of reality is possible; there can be no knowledge of anything beyond experience. Despite the enduring influence of his theory of knowledge, Hume seems to have considered himself primarily a moralist.
Hume was one of the particularly significant figures of his century--as a writer, historian, economist, and philosopher he made great strides forward and his achievements are still highly valued in human culture today.
David Humphreys was an American soldier, statesman, diplomat, writer, poet, and biographer.
He received his bachelor's degree from Yale University, where he became a member of the Hartford Witters and taught, and went to serve in the Continental Army in the summer of 1776.
A close friend and aide to George Washington, Humphreys was an eyewitness and active participant in the early years of the United States. During his long career, Col. David Humphreys served as a soldier, secretary, diplomat, and was a writer, poet, orator, biographer, and industrialist. His speeches, poems, literary works, and correspondence with Washington and others of the founding generation serve as a valuable source for historians of the early republic in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Because of his intelligence and diligence, David Humphreys had a long record of service and held many public offices, among others serving as U.S. minister to Spain from 1797 to 1801. He was a member of the Royal Society of London and the American Antiquarian Society.
Washington Irving was an American Romantic writer, historian, and diplomat.
Irving has been called "the first American writer" to be recognized in Europe. In 1815, he traveled to England on family business. A huge success in England and the United States was The Sketch Book, published in several installments during 1819-1820, which contained two of the author's most famous works, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and which made him a literary star in both England and the United States.
He continued his literary endeavors and worked at the U.S. Embassy of Great Britain. Returning to the United States in 1832, Irving visited some little-known territories near the western fringes of the country, and this journey inspired his works Journey on the Prairie (1835), Astoria (1836), and The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (1837). Late in life he published several historical and biographical works, including the five-volume Life of George Washington (1855-1859).
Thomas Jefferson was an American politician and statesman, the third President of the United States (March 4, 1801 - March 4, 1809).
Jefferson was the son of a planter and received a law degree. In 1774, he wrote A Summary of the Rights of British America, which attracted public attention, and he soon gained a reputation as one of the first advocates of American independence from the authority of the British Parliament. In the spring of 1775, the Virginia legislature appointed him a delegate to the Second Conference of the Continental Congress. A year later he was appointed to a committee of five, which also included Adams and Benjamin Franklin, to draft a formal statement of reasons to justify a break with Great Britain. Jefferson thus became one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785, was secretary of state (1790-1793) under Washington, and vice president (1797-1801) under John Adams.
A Democratic-Republican, Jefferson, who believed that the national government should play a limited role in the lives of citizens, was elected president in 1800. One of the most significant accomplishments of Jefferson's first administration was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million dollars in 1803 (from the Gulf of Mexico to present-day Canada), effectively doubling the size of the United States. During his second term, Jefferson was focused on trying to keep America out of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. After his second term as president, he was succeeded by James Madison in 1808.
Upon leaving office, Jefferson retired to his plantation in Virginia, pursued his favorite pastimes, and helped found the University of Virginia. In addition to politics, he is known as a writer, farmer, horticulturist, inventor, book collector, art historian, architect, and scientist. He died at the age of 83 on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Arsène Lacarrière Latour, full name Géraud Calixte Jean Baptiste Arsène Lacarrière Latour, was a French-born American engineer and military officer, architect and surveyor, and writer.
He studied architecture and engineering at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and served briefly in the French Army Corps of Engineers. In 1805 Latour came to New York, where he worked first as a merchant, then as an architect and surveyor, and opened an architectural firm in New Orleans. In 1812. Latour became a U.S. citizen.
In 1814. Latour became Andrew Jackson's military engineer and made an important contribution to the American victory at the Battle of New Orleans. After the war ended, Latour published a book, Historical Memoirs of the War in West Florida and Louisiana, 1814-1815, which is still valued for its eye-witness view of the war.
In 1816. Latour traveled with Jean Lafitte on an expedition to survey and map the Southwest as an agent for Spain. From 1818 to 1834 he worked as an architect in Havana. His manuscripts include an extensive report describing Havana's thriving economy in 1815-1821, local agricultural production (sugar cane, coffee, tobacco), trade with Europe, the United States, and the colonies of South America; statistics; and a section on the city's possible future expansion and growth. Latour subsequently returned to France, where he died.
Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz was a French historian, ethnographer, naturalist and writer.
Le Page du Pratz studied architecture, engineering and astronomy. In 1718, at the age of 23, he sailed to Louisiana and lived there for 16 years, until 1734. He also traveled extensively along the Mississippi, reaching as far as present-day Memphis. His familiarity with the local Natchez people and his knowledge of their language and customs formed the basis for some of the most fascinating parts of his writings.
His History of Louisiana first began publication in twelve issues from 1751 to 1753 in the Journal Economique, and then was published in full in three volumes in Paris in 1758. The three-volume history of early colonial Louisiana is lavishly illustrated. Part of the book is devoted to an ethnographic description of the native inhabitants of Louisiana, particularly the Natchez people he knew well. Other sections describe the history of the colony, from the Spanish and French explorers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the establishment of French settlements along the Mississippi. Le Page du Pratz may have intended to give the colonists an understanding of the Indians, which he felt was necessary for good relations and therefore for the success of colonization. The author also gave his suggestions on agriculture, trade, and the treatment of African slaves.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and a prominent polymath in many fields of science.
Leibniz was a universal genius; he showed his talents in logic, mathematics, mechanics, physics, law, history, diplomacy, and linguistics, and in each of the disciplines he has serious scientific achievements. As a philosopher, he was a leading exponent of 17th-century rationalism and idealism.
Leibniz was a tireless worker and the greatest scholar of his time. In the fate of Leibniz, among other things, there is one interesting page: in 1697, he accidentally met the Russian Tsar Peter I during his trip to Europe. Their further meetings led to the realization of several grandiose projects in Russia, one of which was the establishment of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was also the founder and first president of the Berlin Academy of Sciences and a member of the Royal Society of London.
Jacob Leyssens / Lyssens was a Flemish painter and decorator. After training in Antwerp, he spent a long time in Rome. After his return to Antwerp, he was active as a painter and decorator and collaborated with prominent Antwerp still life painters such as Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen the Younger and Jan Baptist Bosschaert. He became a member of the Bentvueghels, an association of mainly Dutch and Flemish artists working in Rome. Only a few of his works are known, one of which is in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. He decorated many rooms and ceilings in prominent residences and buildings in Antwerp. He is known to have collaborated as a staffage painter with other artists.
Felix Joseph Lipowsky was a Bavarian lawyer, historian and archivist.
Lipowsky studied law in Munich and entered the Bavarian civil service. During the Napoleonic Wars he was assigned diplomatic duties and was also commandant of Munich for a time.
Lipowski was the author of published biographical encyclopedias on Bavarian history, containing a wealth of information on Bavarian art and cultural history. Between 1822 and 1830 he published a collection of Bavarian national costumes, which became the basis for the development of the costume movement in Bavaria.
Edmund Lodge was a British officer, historian, heraldic writer and biographer.
Edmund Lodge was a historian and writer on heraldic subjects. His works included Illustrations of British History, Biography, and Manners in the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth, and James I (3 vols., 1791), which consisted of excerpts from the Howard, Talbot, and Cecil Family manuscripts. He also wrote The Life of Sir Julius Caesar (1827). Lodge contributed to Portraits of Eminent Persons of Great Britain (1814). And his most important work on heraldry was Genealogy of the Existing British Peers (1832).
John Marshall was Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835, Secretary of State, and one of the founders of the American legal system.
During the Revolutionary War, Marshall served first as a lieutenant and after July 1778 as a captain in the Continental Army. In 1781 he left the service, studied law, and began practicing law in Virginia, in Fauquier County, and then in Richmond. He soon became head of the Virginia bar and was a member of the Virginia assembly. In 1788 he took a leading part in the Virginia convention convened to discuss the proposed U.S. Constitution. In 1797-98, along with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Elbridge, Gerry Marshall was appointed by John Adams to negotiate with France.
He was Secretary of State under President Adams from June 6, 1800 to March 4, 1801. At the same time he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1801 and served in that position until 1835.
John Marshall was a personal friend of Washington, he announced his death in 1799, organized his funeral, and delivered his eulogy. Washington's relatives soon asked Marshall to write a biography of the late president. "The Life of George Washington" was published in London in 1804-1807. It includes illustrations, portraits, facsimile letters, and folding maps.
Thomas Martyn was a British zoologist, conchologist and entomologist.
Thomas Martyn was the founder of the Academy of Painted Natural History in London - for young men "possessing a natural talent for drawing and painting, to be developed under his immediate sole direction" in the art of describing natural history. He published several illustrated volumes on botany, entomology, and history.
In 1784 Martyn began his major work, The Universal Conchologist. He acquired a large number of shells brought back from Cook's third voyage, many of which are illustrated in the book along with specimens from other famous collections. Originally publishing the work in 1784 as two volumes devoted mainly to shells from the South Seas, Martyn later expanded the work to a four-volume set in French and English containing 160 plates.
Johann Heinrich Meyer was a Swiss artist and art critic, renowned for his significant contributions to the art and culture of his time. Meyer, born in Stäfa, Switzerland, embarked on an artistic journey that led him to Italy, where he immersed himself in studying Roman sculpture and the works of Raphael. His path crossed with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1787, marking the beginning of a lifelong collaboration and friendship.
Johann Heinrich Meyer's expertise in painting and art history found a prominent platform in Weimar, where he became a key figure at the Weimar Princely Free Drawing School. His involvement with Goethe extended to publishing the art journal Propyläen and managing the art collections at Schloss Weimar. His scholarly pursuits included contributions to Goethe's "Winckelmann and His Century" and a comprehensive History of Art, showcasing his deep engagement with the artistic discourse of his era.
For art collectors and experts, Johann Heinrich Meyer's legacy offers a fascinating glimpse into the intersection of art, culture, and intellectual camaraderie in 18th and 19th-century Europe. His works and scholarly contributions remain a testament to his profound influence on the art world and his pivotal role in the cultural milieu of Weimar.
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Franz Hubert Müller was a German painter, historian and art historian.
Until 1814 he worked as a court painter in Kassel, where he copied works from the Kassel gallery. Later he visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he painted portraits of Russian military figures. In 1823 Franz Hubert Müller was appointed director of the gallery in Darmstadt.
Mercy Otis Warren was an American poet, satirist, playwright, historian, and essayist of the American Revolution.
Mercy Otis was born into a prosperous Cape Cod Island family and was immersed early in the tumultuous political events taking place in the country at the time. One of her brothers was political activist James Otis, who was involved in the American Revolution from the beginning. In 1754, Mercy Otis married farmer James Warren, who later served in the Massachusetts legislature (1766-78). Through her husband's political connections, Warren was personally acquainted with most of the leaders of the Revolution and was constantly at the center of events for more than two decades.
Combining her own convictions with her writing talent, Warren became a poet and historian of the revolutionary era. Her first incisive and polemical pieces in verse were published in a Boston newspaper. This was followed by the prophetic novel Defeat and other works. In 1790 she published a collection of her works, Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous, which included two new plays, The Sack of Rome and The Ladies of Castille. For a woman of the time, such publications were very daring, as female writers usually hid under pseudonyms.
Warren also corresponded extensively with politicians, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. In 1805, she completed a three-volume work entitled A History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution. This book was the earliest work on historical events in the country. Its proximity to political leaders and major national events makes Mercy Warren's writings on the American Revolutionary period especially valuable.
Jan Willem Pieneman was a painter from the Northern Netherlands. In 1805 he was appointed as drawing instructor at the artillery and engineering training centre in Amersfoort. He was particularly noted for his paintings depicting events from the history of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. His fame was established by a painting he did at the Villa Welgelegen, depicting the heroic acts of the Prince of Orange at the Battle of Quatre Bras, followed by a painting of the Battle of Waterloo. The latter found favor with the Duke of Wellington, who invited him to England, on several occasions, to do portraits. In 1820 he was appointed as first director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten) in Amsterdam. He played an important role as mentor and tutor to a group of young artists.
Aert Schouman or Aart Schouman was an 18th-century painter, now better known as a glass engraver, from the Dutch Republic. He was a prolific and versatile Dutch painter, glass engraver, printmaker, collector and dealer, who produced still lifes, biblical and mythological themes, natural history studies, genre, historical and topographical works, portraits, sketches, etchings and mezzotints. He designed tapestries, painted wall-hangings and decorated objects such as fans, snuffboxes and even the glass windows of a magic lantern. From 1742 until 1792 he was head of the Dordrecht Guild of St. Luke, and in 1751 he became regent of the Hague drawing school associated with the Confrerie Pictura of The Hague. In 1736 he founded the "Brotherhood" of the Confrerie in The Hague, a fraternity of amateur art lovers from Dordrecht and environs, of which he was headman during the years 1752–1762.
Aloys Wilhelm Schreiber was a German historian, professor of aesthetics, and writer.
Schreiber was a versatilely gifted intellectual-humanitarian, with interests ranging from aesthetics to court, theater, and travel history. He collected folkloric sagas and songs, published journals, and tried his hand at various literary genres, but readers especially loved his descriptions of his travels along the Rhine and its environs. In 1806 the book "Picturesque Views of the Rhine from Mainz to Düsseldorf" was published. Of particular value is Alois Schreiber's descriptive and illustrative work on the costumes, folk festivals and typical occupations of the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Baden. In 1813.
In 1813, Schreiber was appointed court historian of Karlsruhe, and in this capacity he contributed not only to the cultural but also to the political recognition of the region with his illustrated books.
Pieter Van Huffel was a Belgian portrait and history painter and industrialist. He received his first drawing training from his uncle Pierre Canivé, a painter and restorer in his hometown. Courses at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent followed. Here he already won first prizes in 1786 and 1788. After his student years Pieter Van Huffel settled in Ghent. In 1796 he was first represented at the Ghent Salon with two religious works. After that he regularly exhibited there until 1832. In 1805 he was appointed artistic director and in 1814 professor at the Academy in Ghent. In 1811 he was appointed permanent president of the Société des Arts in Ghent, which he had founded with other artists in 1808. Pieter Van Huffel's oeuvre consisted mainly of portraits and historical motifs; he also produced several Christian religious works for various churches in Ghent.
Voltaire, born François Marie Arouet, was a French philosopher-enlightener of the French Enlightenment, poet and writer, satirist, tragedian, historian and essayist.
Voltaire's long life fell on the last years of classicism and the eve of the revolutionary era, and in this transitional period his works and activities had a significant impact on the direction of European civilization. Through his critical freethinking and wit, Voltaire won the minds of many 18th century European rulers. To this day, he continues to enjoy worldwide fame as a courageous fighter against tyranny, bigotry, and cruelty.
Voltaire was an advocate of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and separation of church and state. He was a versatile and prolific writer in all literary forms, including plays, poems, novels, essays, histories, and scholarly expositions. In total, he wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets. Voltaire's most famous works are the tragic play Zaire, the historical study The Age of Louis XIV, and the satirical novella Candide.
Franz Sigmund von Wagner was a Swiss painter, caricaturist, engraver and historian.
Wagner contributed to art magazines, traded in art, was a member of the Bern Society of Artists, and assisted the government of Bern in building a collection of paintings, the foundation of which he laid. Wagner, who was fascinated by the history of the Swiss Confederation and Old Bern, was a member of the Bern Society for the Study of History, founded in 1811, and wrote historical studies.
Sigmund Wagner is also known for his aptly critical caricatures on social topics.
Franz Xaver Freiherr (from 1801) von Zach, Baron (Hungarian: Zách János Ferenc) was an Austro-German astronomer, surveyor, mathematician, science historian and officer of Hungarian origin. He rendered outstanding services in the exploration of the solar system and the organization of international astronomy, after whom a lunar crater (Zach) and an asteroid ((999) Zachia) were named, among others. He was also the founder of the first scientific journals and organised the first astronomical congress in 1798.
Isaac Weld was an Irish explorer, writer, and artist.
After completing his studies, Isaac Weld traveled to the new lands of America in 1795, meeting Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. The purpose of his journey was to learn of opportunities for Irish resettlement. Returning in 1797, Weld soon published his book, A Journey through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. In general, Weld did not like the United States; he particularly noted the practice of slavery and the treatment of Native peoples by the rude new Americans. But he liked Canada and Quebec: he praised the views from the Citadel and reported that because of the low cost of land, a middle-income person could easily settle in the country for himself and his family.
This book by Weld was quite popular: it went through several editions from its first publication in 1799 to 1807. By 1820, it had also been translated into French, German, Italian, and Dutch.
In 1800 Weld was elected a member of the Royal Society of Dublin. In 1811 and 1812 he served on the library committee, and on December 4, 1828, he was elected honorary secretary. His first act in this capacity was to establish an annual exhibition of specimens of the manufactures and products of Ireland. Isaac Weld published several other books on Ireland and Great Britain, illustrated with his own drawings. Of these, his Statistical Survey of the County of Roscommon, over seven hundred pages long, published by the Royal Dublin Society in 1832, stands out.