Christoph Nathe (3 January 1753, Nieder-Bielau - 10 December 1806, Schadewalde) was a German

miniaturist A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

watercolorist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

and

etcher Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

Life and work

He was born to a family of farmers. After completing his secondary education, he took his first drawing lessons from . His work was noticed by the naturalist, , who became his patron. When Gersdorff went to

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, In 1774, he made it possible for Nathe to study at the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

with

Adam Friedrich Oeser Adam Friedrich Oeser (17 February 1717 in Pressburg – 18 March 1799 in Leipzig) was a German etcher, painter and sculptor. Biography Oeser worked and studied in Pressburg (student of Georg Raphael Donner in sculpture) and Vienna at the ...

. He also received professional advice from Johann Friedrich Bause, a portrait engraver. From 1783 to 1784, he accompanied the ornithologist, Karl Andreas von Meyer zu Knonow (1744-1797), a relative of Gersdorff's, on an extensive tour of Switzerland, which he later described as the high point of his life. The drawings he created while there were in great demand in Leipzig. Despite this, he felt that his financial situation was insecure so, in 1787, he left Leipzig to accept the position of Director at the Görlitz drawing school, and taught at the local gymnasium. He still travelled frequently, to acquire material for his drawings. In 1795, he married one of his students; Caroline von Meyer, who was Gersdorff's niece and brought a small fortune with her. She died only three years later. In 1799, thanks to his improved finances, he was able to retire from his positions and move to Lauban. He continued to work, however; executing a series of views of the

Riesengebirge The Giant Mountains, Krkonoše or Karkonosze (Czech: , Polish: , german: Riesengebirge) are a mountain range located in the north of the Czech Republic and the south-west of Poland, part of the Sudetes mountain system (part of the Bohemian Massif ...

for Queen Louise. An old friend from the Leipzig Academy, Johann Christian Reinhart, invited him to come to Rome in 1801. He spent some time learning Italian, and intended to relocate there, but his plans never came to fruition. He died in 1806, while taking a short hike near Schadewalde. The largest collection of his works is in the Graphische Kabinett at the Kulturhistorischen Museum Görlitz.

Sources

Biography and sources
@

Sächsische Biografie ''Sächsische Biografie'' (''SäBi)'' axon biographyis a biographical dictionary of noteworthy persons in the history of Saxony from the 10th century to the present. As of 2014 it contained entries for about 10,500 persons and about 1,250 biogra ...

Biography
@ Kulturstiftung * Ernst Scheyer: ''Christoph Nathe und die Landschaftskunst des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts''. Würzburg : Verl. Kulturwerk Schlesien, 1958

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nathe, Christoph 1753 births 1806 deaths German artists German etchers German watercolourists Silesian-German people People from Bielawa