Franz Burchard Dörbeck ( in

Fellin Viljandi (, , , , ) is a town and municipality in southern Estonia with a population of 17,255 in 2024. It is the capital of Viljandi County and is geographically located between two major Estonian cities, Pärnu and Tartu. The town was first me ...

) was a

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming l ...

and

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Abril Lamarque (1904–1999) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfre ...

born in

(now Viljandi,

Viljandi County Viljandi County ( or ''Viljandimaa''; ) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is located in southern Estonia bordering Pärnu, Järva, Jõgeva, Tartu and Valga counties as well as Latvia. History Viljandimaa, under the German name of ''Krei ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

) in what was then the

Governorate of Livonia The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, Baltic Governorate-General until 1876. Governorate of Livonia bordered Governorate of E ...

From 1814 to 1816 Dörbeck studied

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

with Fritz Neyer in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. After the early death of his first wife, Dörbeck moved to

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

where he was active from 1820 as a portrait artist. In 1823 Dörbeck moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Kingd I m of Prussia where he continued as a graphic artist and book illustrator. He gained fame with his caricatures published in newspapers. Dörbeck died in 1835 in Viljandi. In the 1960s one of the streets in Berlin's

Spandau Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs of Berlin, boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence (geography), confluence of the Havel and Spree (river), Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smalle ...

district was named after him: Dörbeckweg.Dörbeckweg at luise-berlin.de
/ref> In Estonian cultural history Dörbeck is known as the author of the only surviving portrait of

Kristjan Jaak Peterson Kristjan Jaak Peterson (, Riga – , Riga), also known as Christian Jacob Petersohn, was an Estonian poet, commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and the founder of modern Estonian poetry. His birthday on March 14 is ce ...

, the founder of modern Estonian poetry.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dorbeck 1799 births 1835 deaths People from Viljandi People from Kreis Fellin Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire Illustrators from the Russian Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire Immigrants to the Kingdom of Prussia Artists from the Kingdom of Prussia German caricaturists 19th-century Estonian artists 19th-century Estonian male artists

See also

References

External links