Johann Heinrich Meyer

1755–1829, Zurich

Johann Heinrich Meyer had a literary background and turned to printmaking relatively late, teaching himself the necessary skills at the age of twenty-seven. He took the work of his Swiss colleagues, such as Salomon Gessner and Ludwig Hess, as a guide. He began by copying the compositions of the former, while with Hess he went on walking tours of Switzerland in order to improve his technique and find his own vision of nature. Although Meyer was a prolific artist who produced an extensive printed and drawn oeuvre, his works tend to be rare today.