Portrait of Carl Philipp Fohr
1818
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Samuel Amsler
Samuel Amsler, a Swiss engraver, was born at Schinznach, in the canton of Aargau.
See the richer artist page1818
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Portrait of Carl Philipp Fohr is a 1818 by Samuel Amsler, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A young man in a velvet cap and old-fashioned collar looks straight at you. His face is calm, almost like a statue. This isn’t just a portrait—it’s a tribute. The man, Carl Philipp Fohr, was an artist who drowned in Rome. His friends made this print to remember him. They dressed him in Renaissance clothes to link him to artists from centuries before. Look up *sfumato* to see how soft edges like these were used in portraits from that time.
This print was made by two artists as a memorial to their friend—a fellow German artist—who drowned while swimming in the Tiber River in Rome. Such “friendship portraits” were common in the early nineteenth century, especially among artists who lived or worked together as they traveled through Europe. Samuel Amsler used the technique of engraving to refer to Germany’s distinguished history in that medium, and he also clothed his friend in Renaissance garb. Such connections to the past were aspects of the Romantic ideal shared by the artists.
This print was made to commemorate the friendship between the two artists who made it, and the sitter, who had drowned while swimming in the Tiber River in Rome.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Samuel Amsler, a Swiss engraver, was born at Schinznach, in the canton of Aargau.
See the richer artist page
