Portrait of Ferdinand Kobell - Christian Jakob Schlotterbeck

A formal portrait etching of the German painter Ferdinand Kobell, created by Christian Jakob Schlotterbeck in 1797.

This portrait depicts Ferdinand Kobell, a German painter and printmaker, rendered through the precise techniques of etching and engraving. Christian Jakob Schlotterbeck, a contemporary of the subject, captures Kobell in a formal, oval-framed composition typical of late eighteenth-century European portraiture. The subject is shown in three-quarter view, wearing a coat and a ruffled cravat, reflecting the fashion of the period.

Schlotterbeck employs a disciplined approach to shading, using fine cross-hatching to model the facial features and the texture of the clothing. The background within the oval is filled with dense, horizontal lines, which creates a subtle contrast against the lighter tones of the subject's face. Below the portrait, a cartouche contains biographical details in French, identifying Kobell as a 'peintre-graveur en paysages' and noting his birth in Mannheim and death in Munich.

This work was published in Nuremberg by J. F. Frauenholz and Company in 1797. The print demonstrates the technical rigour common among printmakers of the era, who often worked from paintings or drawings by other artists to disseminate likenesses of notable figures. The inclusion of the artist's signature and the publisher's details at the base provides a clear record of the print's production. The composition remains balanced, focusing on the character of the sitter while maintaining the formal conventions of the time. The print serves as a record of the professional connections between artists in the German-speaking regions during the late eighteenth century.