Clarissa aan tafel bij Lovelace en zijn vrienden

About this artwork

verzamelaarsmerk, verso, gestempeld: Lugt 2228

Art Historical Context

**Clarissa aan tafel bij Lovel en zijn vrienden** (1784) is a delicate etching by Daniel Nikolausodowiecki, a German artist renowned for his narrative illustrations of 18th-century literature. Measuring just 162 × 104 mm, this print captures a pivotal dinner scene from Samuel Richardson's epistolary novel *Clarissa, or the History of a Lady* (1748). Here, the virtuous heroine Clarissa sits uneasily at table with the rakish Lovelace and his scheming friends, foreshadowing her tragic seduction and moral downfall—a theme that gripped Enlightenment readers across Europe. Chodowiecki, often called the "German Hogarth" for his sharp social commentary, excelled in etching, a technique using acid to etch fine lines into a copper plate for precise, reproducible details. His style blends Rococo elegance with emerging Neoclassicism, emphasizing moral instruction through everyday domestic scenes. This work likely appeared in one of the illustrated editions of Richardson's novel that popularized the story in Germany and beyond, reflecting the era's fascination with sentimental fiction and women's virtue. Verso bears the collector's mark Lugt 2228, a stamped provenance linking it to esteemed 19th- or 20th-century connoisseurs. As a window into 18th-century literary culture, this etching invites us to ponder the power of visual storytelling in shaping public morality.

About the Artist

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki · 1726–1801

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726–1801) was a German painter and printmaker of Polish-Huguenot descent who became the most celebrated graphic artist in 18th-century Germany. Born in Danzig (now Gdańsk), he created approximately 2,000 etchings that serve as an invaluable visual record of German bourgeois life during the Enlightenment. Largely self-taught, Chodowiecki moved to Berlin in 1743 and ach...