Sixtus Armin Thon (10 November 1817,

Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...

- 26 September 1901,

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

) was a German painter,

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 ...

and

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

. There is widespread disagreement over whether his name was Sixtus or Sixt, even though his gravestone says "Sixtus".

Life and work

He was born to the naturalist and

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...

, , who was also an amateur engraver. In 1837, he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig, then transferred to the

Weimar Princely Free Drawing School The Weimar Princely Free Drawing School (german: Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar) was an art and literature educational establishment. It was set up in 1776 in Weimar by the scholar and ducal private-secretary Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747� ...

, where his primary instructor was

Friedrich Preller the Elder Friedrich Preller the Elder (25 April 1804 in Eisenach – 23 April 1878 in Weimar) was a German landscape painter and etcher. From 1832 he was a professor at the Fürstlichen freien Zeichenschule in Weimar. He was the father of the artist F ...

. He also took study trips to the Netherlands and Norway and completed his training at the

Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp ( nl, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Antwerpen) is an art academy located in Antwerp, Belgium. It is one of the oldest of its kind in Europe. It was founded in 1663 by David Teniers the Younger, ...

. In the 1850s, he ran one of the first photography studios in Weimar. In 1861, he became a teacher at his alma mater, the Drawing school. He served as the interim Director there in 1873. For a time, he also taught at the "Sophienstift", a school for girls established by

Princess Sophie of the Netherlands Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

. He was largely known for landscapes and

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

scenes, but the etchings and lithographs he made for ''

Die Gartenlaube ''Die Gartenlaube – Illustriertes Familienblatt'' (; ) was the first successful mass-circulation German newspaper and a forerunner of all modern magazines.Sylvia Palatschek: ''Popular Historiographies in the 19th and 20th Centuries'' (Oxford: ...

'' and other publications are probably his most familiar works. The municipal collection in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

possesses a large number of his original materials.''Verwaltungsbericht der Stadt Braunschweig'', 1951 (pg.86)

References

External links

More works by Thon
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Thon, Sixtus Armin 1817 births 1901 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German etchers German lithographers Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumni People from Eisenach

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links