Portrait of Carl Philipp Fohr (1818): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Carl Philipp Fohr (1818) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Samuel Amsler (German, born Switzerland, 1791–1849); Carl Barth (German, 1787–1853).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This print was made by two artists as a memorial to their friend—a fellow German artist—who drowned while swimming in the Tiber River in Rome. Such “friendship portraits” were common in the early nineteenth century, especially among artists who lived or worked together as they traveled through Europe. Samuel Amsler used the technique of engraving to refer to Germany’s distinguished history in that medium, and he also clothed his friend in Renaissance garb. Such connections to the past were aspects of the Romantic ideal shared by the artists.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Carl Philipp Fohr
• Date: 1818
• Creator attribution: Samuel Amsler (German, born Switzerland, 1791–1849); Carl Barth (German, 1787–1853)
• Culture: Germany, 19th century
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving and etching on wove paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 14.5 x 11.4 cm (5 11/16 x 4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2018.305

A detail from the museum

This print was made to commemorate the friendship between the two artists who made it, and the sitter, who had drowned while swimming in the Tiber River in Rome.

Collection credit

Gift of Margaret and Peter Dobbins

Further reading listed by the museum

• Meyer, Julius, ed. Nagler, G. K. Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon: Unter Mitwirkung der namhaftesten Fachgelehrten des In- un Auslandes. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, vol. 1 (1872)
• Apell, Aloys. Handbuch für Kupferstichsammler ; oder. Lexicon der vorzüglichsten Kupferstecher des XIX. Jahrhunderts welche in Linienmanier gearbeitet habèn, sowie Beschreibung ihrer besten und gesuchtesten Blätter. [Walluf bei Wiesbaden]: M. Sändig, 1972.
• Seeliger, Stephan, and Norbert Suhr. Unter Glas un Rahmen: Druckgraphik der Romantik aus den Beständen des Landesmuseums Mainz und aus Privatbesitz. Exh. Cat., Landesmuseum Mainz, 1993

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.