Eight and a Half Weeks. Daniel Chodowiecki. Science, Education, Reforms

Daniel Chodowiecki was not only a celebrated illustrator but also an active participant in the scientific life of his age. From 11 September to 1 November you can see at the Department of Old Art of the National Museum in Gdańsk the fourth and final part of the cycle Eight and a Half Weeks, featuring Chodowiecki's engravings and drawings under the title Science, Education, Reforms.

As part of the cycle, curators Alicja Andrzejewska-Zając and Maja Mociewicz present the key themes of the work of this artist, who is important to Gdańsk and whose 300th birthday anniversary we celebrate this year. The first exhibition addressed the new Enlightenment approach to the family, the second showed Chodowiecki's exceptional social sensitivity and gift for observation, the third focused on his activity connected with education, and the fourth presents the artist's broad horizons and his numerous contacts with outstanding personalities of his time.

– He illustrated innovative textbooks for children, collaborating with Enlightenment pedagogues Johann Bernhard Basedow and Johann Michael Friedrich Schulze. His work attests to numerous personal contacts with eighteenth-century thinkers, historians and writers: Peter Christian Friedrich Reclam, Jean-Pierre Erman, Moses Mendelssohn and David Friedländer. A modern approach to science, an emphasis on observing the world and empiricism were expressed in close contacts with the creator of physiognomy Johann Kaspar Lavater and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, author of a revolutionary biological treatise on the drive – explains Maja Mociewicz, one of the curators of the Eight and a Half Weeks exhibition cycle.

The artist led a wide-ranging and rich social life, full of intellectual ferment, exchange of ideas and creative debates that characterised the Enlightenment and its faith in a better tomorrow.

– Chodowiecki's illustrations also spread novelties and current knowledge based on science. His engravings accompanied texts on new geographical, medical and astronomical discoveries. He was at once a skilled artist and an intellectual sensitive to the world, which allowed him to clothe complex scientific theories in a legible, emotionally moving image – adds Alicja Andrzejewska-Zając.

Although Daniel Chodowiecki was not a court artist, many of his works show a modern, reformed Prussian state under the enlightened rule of Frederick the Great. Illustrations for numerous almanacs and pocket calendars glorify the deeds of the Prussian king, his family and entourage, and above all the reforms and military successes he introduced.

Daniel Chodowiecki was born in Gdańsk, but spent most of his life in Berlin, where he moved at the age of seventeen. He initially approached art as an amateur, practising the then fashionable enamel and miniature painting. He trained at the private painting academy of Christian Bernhard Rode, aiming to become a history painter, but from around 1754 he increasingly turned to printmaking. He quickly gained recognition as a skilled engraver, which brought him numerous and lucrative illustration commissions. In 1764 Chodowiecki became a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts, and in 1797 he took up the post of its director.

The fourth exhibition devoted to the artist will be accompanied on 16–18 October by the autumn edition of the Chodowiecki Festival, a three-day meeting with the culture and customs of the eighteenth century. The event will take place at the Department of Old Art of the Museum.

The events at the National Museum in Gdańsk are part of Gdańsk's celebrations of the 300th anniversary of Daniel Chodowiecki's birth. As part of them, the temporary exhibition I drew life all my life. On the Tricentenary of Daniel Chodowiecki's Birth was also created, which can be seen at the Museum of Gdańsk.

Eight and a Half Weeks. Daniel Chodowiecki:

Honorary patronage of the exhibition cycle Eight and a Half Weeks. Daniel Chodowiecki was assumed by the Consul General of Germany in Gdańsk, Karl-Matthias Klause.