Ludwig Hess (18 October 1760,

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

- 13/16 April 1800, Zürich) was a Swiss landscape painter and engraver.

Biography

His father was a butcher and he initially became one as well. In 1785, he was enrolled as a member of Guild of the Ram, one of the Zünfte of Zürich, which included butchers and cattle merchants. After 1790, he served as a Grossrat. That same year. he married Anna Barbara Wegmann. The painters

Johann Heinrich Wüest Johann Heinrich Wüest (14 May 1741, Zürich - 7 April 1821, Zürich) was a Swiss landscape painter in the Romantic style. Life and work His father was a rope maker. His artistic training took place entirely in Zürich, where he also spent mo ...

and

Salomon Gessner Salomon Gessner (1730–1788) was a Swiss painter, graphic artist, government official, newspaper publisher and poet; best known in the latter instance for his ''Idylls''. Biography His father, Hans Konrad Gessner (1696–1775), was a printer, ...

were his customers and, as early as 1778, he had begun taking lessons from Wüest. In 1784, he also began studying with Gessner. In 1794, he decided to abandon his trade; making trips to Florence and Rome for further study. Most of his early works were Alpine landscapes, notably of Mont Blanc,

Rütli Rütli () or Grütli (; ) is a mountain meadow on Lake Lucerne, in the Seelisberg municipality of the Swiss canton of Uri. It is the site of the Rütlischwur in traditional Swiss historiography, the oath marking the foundation of the origi ...

and the

Tellskapelle The ''Tellskapelle'' ("Tell's chapel") is located on the ''Tellsplatte'' or ''Tellenplatte'' ("Tell's slab") on the shore of Lake Lucerne at the foot of the Axenberg cliffs (an offshoot ridge of Glärnisch, 1,022 m), in the Sisikon municipality, ...

and he was an early practitioner of

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

. After 1798, he also did

copper engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

s. In 2005, a previously unknown biography of him was discovered at the

ETH Zürich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

, in the prints and drawings collection, among documents related to the landscape painter, Carl Gotthard Grass (1767–1814).

Sources

* , 2006 * Ludwig Hess. In: Hans Vollmer (Ed.): ''Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart''. Begründet von Ulrich Thieme und Felix Becker. Vol.16: Hansen–Heubach. E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1923, pg.585. *

External links

More works by Hess
@ ArtNet * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hess, Ludwig 18th-century Swiss painters 18th-century Swiss male artists Swiss male painters 1760 births 1800 deaths