Print collector's quarterly (4.1914)

GOETHE AS A PRINT-LOVER
By GUSTAV POLLAK

■OETHE’S interest in art was deep and life-
long. From his earliest youth he was fami-
liär with good paintings and prints, and in
contact with artists. Carefully instructed
by his father in drawing and copying, he soon gained the
favor of the painters who frequented the parental home
— men like Seekatz, Schütz, Junker and Hirt — and
who, clirectly or indirectly, formed his artistic judgment.
The prevailing taste of the Frankfort of Goethe’s youth
was for landscape paintings in the Dutch männer, but
the city contained numerous private collections of a
cosmopolitan character. The boy found pleasure in
attending auction sales of pictures and prints, and was
particularly interested in the clisposal of the famous
collection of Baron von Häckel, in 1762, on which occa-
sion he was commissioned to buy several objects for
his father. Düring his student days at Leipsic Goethe
acquired his first knowledge of engraving and etching.
He attended the Kunstakademie of Friedrich Oeser,
who then enjoyed considerable renown as painter,
sculptor and etcher, but he profitecl more by the Instruc-
tion given him by the engraver and etcher Johann
Michael Stock. Under his guidance Goethe etched sev-
eral landscapes after Thiele, the plates of two of which
are still preserved in the Leipsic Stadtbibliothek. The
private collections of the city stimulated the young stu-

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