Johann Jakob Walther (23 January 1604 – 1676/7

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

) was a painter and natural history illustrator, who chronicled the life of Strasbourg during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

, but is best known for his work ''Horti Itzeinensis'' aka the ''Nassau Florilegium'' depicting flowering plants from the gardens of Johann, Count of Nassau-Idstein at

Idstein Idstein () is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Because of its well preserved historical Altstadt (Old Town) it is part of the ''Deutsche Fachwerkstraße'' ...

. Walther was the son of Gerard Walther. He probably trained in the workshop of miniaturist Friedrich Brentel. He left Strasbourg around 1618 and returned in 1635. He was elected to the Grand Council of the city in 1659. His meeting in Strasbourg with the Count was a decisive moment in his career, since the Count became one of his most important patrons. This was an era when the purpose of a florilegium was to serve as a pictorial catalogue of a garden, and correspondence shows that the Count invited Walther to Idstein near

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

to spend the spring and summer months there to paint flowers and fruits from the garden - Walther did so on at least eight occasions between 1654 and 1674. The paintings were bound into anthologies of which only three versions are known - one at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London has 133 flower studies and a number of views of the garden that are painted on paper and bound in two volumes, another at the

National Library of France National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, a codex of 54 gouaches on parchment, and the final set at the

Städel Museum The Städel, officially the ''Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie'', is an art museum in Frankfurt, with one of the most important collections in Germany. The Städel Museum owns 3,100 paintings, 660 sculptures, more than 4,600 ...

in Frankfurt am Main which has two volumes of the Florilegium with 130 gouaches of flowers on parchment. Walther was the great-uncle of the painter .

Bibliography

* ''Strassburg im Dreissigjährigen Kriege, Fragment aus der Strassburgischen Chronik des Malers J.J. Walther, nebst Einleitung und biographischer Notiz von Rudolf Reuss'', Strasbourg, 1879, 41 p. * ''Das Vogelbuch (Johann Jakob Walther) ; nach den Tafeln der Graphischen Sammlung Albertina in Wien bearbeitet von Armin Geus'', Harenberg, Dortmund, 1982, 95 p. * Jenny de Gex (dir.), ''So many sweet flowers : a seventeenth-century florilegium / paintings by Johann Walther 1654'' (préface de Gill Saunders), Pavilion, Londres, 1997, 104 p. * Laure Beaumont-Maillet, ''Le 'Florilège de Nassau-Idstein' par Johann Walter, 1604-1676'', Anthèse, Arcueil, 1993, 95 p. *

Emmanuel Bénézit Charles Emmanuel Bénézit (; Jersey, 1854 – Paris, 1920) was a French gallery owner, collector, art historian and editor of the Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Biography Bénézit was born on Jersey, where his father, musician Charles Bénézi ...

et Jacques Busse, ''Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les pays'', vol. 14, 1999 (4th ed.), p. 420 * ''D'après nature : chefs-d'œuvre de l'art naturaliste en Alsace de 1450 à 1800 : Schongauer, Grünewald, Baldung, Hermann, Walter...'' (exposition à Strasbourg, Église protestante Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune, 25 juin-2 octobre 1994), Ed. Creamuse, Ed. Andromaque, Strasbourg, 1994, 199 p. * François Lotz, ''Artistes peintres alsaciens décédés avant 1800'', Kaysersberg, Ed. Printek, 1994, p. 150. * François Joseph Fuchs, « Johann (Jacob) Walt(h)er », notice du ''Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne'', Strasbourg, Fédération des Sociétés d'Histoire et d'Archéologie d'Alsace, 2002, n°39 p. 4081-4082. *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walther, Johann Jakob Artists from Strasbourg Botanical illustrators German illustrators 1604 births 1676 deaths