To look people in the face is the portraitist's destiny. What appears on the canvas is more or less similar and does not always reveal the essence of the person portrayed. Anton Graff with his attentive eye and his artistic talent, however, many prominent contemporaries rightly entrusted their portraits to him.
Born in Winterthur, Switzerland, as the son of a tin caster, the talented boy was predestined for a profession in the crafts, but only marginally as an artist. However, he was able to develop his skills at the local drawing school of Johann Ulrich Schellenberg before he moved to the engraver Johann Jakob Haid in Augsburg in 1756. One year later he joined the portrait and court painter Leonhard Schneider. The copying of portraits, which was common practice at the time, led him to make representations of Frederick the Great. In 1759 he left Schneider's workshop and turned again to Johann Jakob Haid. The spirit of the Enlightenment reached him at the latest when he visited the Swiss theologians and philosophers Johann Georg Sulzer and Johann Kaspar Lavater in the company of the painter Johann Heinrich FĂĽssli, 1764. The encounter seems to have had a not inconsiderable influence on him. As a renowned portraitist, he was appointed court painter of the Electorate of Saxony in 1766 and in the same year followed an appointment to the Dresden Academy of Art. From then on, his place of work was Dresden, which he left only occasionally.
Many well-known portraits of the painter shed light on the significance of people and the spirit of the times. Apart from views of Frederick the Great and Frederick William II, the artist placed all kinds of important public figures on canvas or drawing paper. Among them are intellectual greats and literary figures such as Lessing, Herder and Schiller. However, in contrast to the preceding epochs of the Baroque and early Rococo, he portrayed representatives of both the nobility and the bourgeoisie. The spirit of the Enlightenment is reflected here in the names and character of the persons depicted, but also in the artist's clear painterly rendering. The pictures precisely show details of clothing and sometimes accessories as symbols of status. And yet the expression of the faces is not rigid, the portraits are not impersonal. They always lead us to suspect the character of the individual. In terms of colour, most pictures appear rather restrained. However, the movement of the body or a special facial expression, often surprisingly emotional for a representative portrait, makes them appear moved and lively.
Although the persons depicted are in an undefined space, the versatile artist later turned to this aspect in some of his works. Around 1800, some landscape paintings from the Dresden area show a completely different expression: they show a tendency towards Romanticism. Thematically they are not far from motifs Caspar David Friedrichs and Philipp Otto Runges and offered them artistic orientation. Painterly, however, the first signs of an impressionistic mode of representation can be seen.
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.jpg "Frederick the Great by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Friedrich Schiller by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1519169).jpg "Friedrich II of Prussia")
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.jpg "Self Portrait at 50 Years Old, 1787 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Friedrich II, King of Prussia by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia, Duchess of York and Albany by Anton Graff")
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 King of Saxony - (MeisterDrucke-111020).jpg "Portrait of Frederick Augustus I (1750-1827), King of Saxony by Anton Graff")
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_1779_-_(MeisterDrucke-56354).jpg "Portrait of Prince Henry of Prussia, 1779 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Konstancja Rzewuska née Lubomirska by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1500490).jpg "Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German dramatist and philosopher by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Frederick II the Great of Prussia, 1764 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Henry XIV, Prince of Reuss by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Johanna Margarete Christine Countess von BrĂĽhl by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Georg Ritter von Zimmermann by Anton Graff")
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_Um_1800_1801_Daniel_Nikolaus_Cho_-_(MeisterDrucke-1561002).jpg "Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726-1801) by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait Before an Easel by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-576896).jpg "Portrait of the Actress Friederike Seyler (1738-89) by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Henriette Herz, née De Lemos, 1792 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, c.1771 by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1128975).jpg "Johanna Amalie, Countess Senfft von Pilsach with her son Henry by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Prince Henry of Prussia by Anton Graff")
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_frere_de_Frederic_le_Grand_Peintu_-_(MeisterDrucke-1325082).jpg "Portrait of Prince Henry of Prussia, Brother of Frederick the Great by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-portrait by Anton Graff")
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 1801 - (MeisterDrucke-100403).jpg "The Daughter: Portrait of Caroline Susanne Graff (b.1781), 1801 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Dorota Czartoryska née Jabłonowska by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Saint Mary Magdalen by Anton Graff")
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_(1749-1799)_-_(MeisterDrucke-1570600).jpg "Heinrich XIV. Reuss Elder Line (1749-1799) by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1663653).jpg "Moses Mendelssohn, German Philosopher by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Friedrich von Schiller by Friedrich Wilhelm Bollinger")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait with Eye-shade by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Abraham Bosse by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Frederik Christian, Duke of Schleswig by Gerhard Ludvig Lahde")
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 engraved by Johann Friedrich Bause (1738-1814) 1772 - (MeisterDrucke-100895).jpg "Portrait of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-81) engraved by Johann Friedrich Bause (1738-1814) by Anton Graff")
 engraved by Johann Friedrich Bause (1738-1814) 1772 - (MeisterDrucke-100895).jpg)
.jpg "The Artist")
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_militaire_francais_et_homme_poli_-_(MeisterDrucke-1324938).jpg "Portrait of George Leopold de Gogul, French Military and Politician by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Adrian Zingg by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Konstancja Lubomirska Rzewuska, 1789 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of an Old Woman by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Wilhelmine Henry, known as Minette by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Gertrud Elisabeth Mara by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1663382).jpg "Christian Fuerchtegott Gellert, German poet and philosopher by Anton Graff")
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 She presided over o - (MeisterDrucke-676775).jpg "Portrait of Henriette Herz (née de Lemos). She Presided Over One of the Most Celebrated Literary Salons in Berlin by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Christian FĂĽrchtegott Gellert by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1561004).jpg "Portrait of Karl Wilhelm Ramler (1725-1798) by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Johann Christoph Friedrich Von Schiller, German Poet, Dramatist and Historian by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Adrian Ivanovich Divov by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-portrait by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait with Eye-shade, 1813 by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-569448).jpg "Portrait of F.J.L. Meyer (1760-1844) by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Frederick the Great by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Countess Zofia Potocka-Witt by Anton Graff")
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 1796 - (MeisterDrucke-154286).jpg "Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) 1796 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Elisabeth Sulzer by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Friedrich von Schiller by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait Before an Easel by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Actor Christian Wilhelm Opitz 1756-1810 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of the actor Conrad Ekhof, ca 1774 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Johann August Ernesti by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Dorothea Friederike Schlegel 1764-1839, née Brendel Mendelssohn, c.1790 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Provost Johann Joachim Spalding in a Housecoat by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1659522).jpg "Archduchess Marie-Christine in a Striped Silk Dress by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Conrad Ekhof, 1774 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Prince Charles of Saxony 1733-1796 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Lady by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Man by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Julie Friederike Henriette Clodius by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Elisa von der Recke by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Anna Oraczewska with the Dog by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Elisabeth Sophie Auguste Graff by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon with Diadem by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich by Anton Graff")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1659794).jpg "Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German Poet by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Carl Friedrich Demiani by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "The philosopher and writer Johann Jakob Engel by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait with Eye-shade by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-portrait by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-portrait in Old Age by Anton Graff")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-606814).jpg "Portrait of Princess Louise Auguste of Denmark by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Landscape Painter Carl Anton Graff by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Johann Joachim Spalding 1714-1804 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Johann Georg Sulzer by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Konstancja Rzewuska by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Philipp Daniel Lippert by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Hands Holding a Sword and a Tricorn by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Karl Ludwig Kaaz by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Elisa von der Recke by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait by Anton Graff")
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_Um_1800_1801_Portrait_of_Daniel_-_(MeisterDrucke-1557245).jpg "Portrait of Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-portrait by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Christian Friedrich Voss 1724-1795 by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Detmar Friedrich Wilhelm Basse by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Count Jan Potocki by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Portrait of Hereditary Prince Heinrich XIII by Anton Graff")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait Facing Right in a Green Velvet Coat by Anton Graff")
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