Portret van Georg Adam Struve op 42-jarige leeftijd

About this artwork

height 179 mm x width 133 mm

Art Historical Context

This engraving by Johann Dürr, created in 1663, captures Georg Adam Struve at the age of 42. The modest dimensions of 179 by 133 millimeters suggest an intimate portrait, likely intended for personal collections or scholarly publications rather than grand display. As a printed work, it reflects the growing demand in the seventeenth century for reproducible images of notable figures. Engraving was a precise technique well suited to rendering fine details in clothing, facial features, and inscriptions. Dürr’s careful line work would have allowed the portrait to circulate widely among educated audiences across Europe, preserving Struve’s likeness long after his lifetime. Such prints often served both as personal mementos and as visual records within academic or legal circles. Today the work offers a glimpse into Baroque-era conventions of portraiture, where even small-scale engravings conveyed status and intellectual achievement through composed posture and legible text. Its survival highlights the enduring value of printmaking in documenting seventeenth-century European society.

About the Artist

Johann Dürr · 1600–1663

Johann Dürr (1600–1663) was a German copperplate engraver who worked primarily in Weimar during the mid-17th century, producing prints for court and scholarly patrons during the tumultuous period of the Thirty Years' War. Born in 1600, Dürr's career spanned one of the most devastating periods in German history, when religious conflict and military campaigns brought widespread destruction to German...