Johann Friedrich Bolt

The draughtsman and engraver, Johann Friedrich Bolt, began his studies at a very young age at the Berlin Academy, where he made friends with his fellow pupil, Johann Gottfried Schadow. From 1785 Bolt studied under the renowned engraver, Daniel Berger, whom he also assisted. He was represented at Berlin Academy exhibitions from 1787 to 1810. Bolt experimented with various printmaking techniques and, using the nascent stipple engraving method, produced numerous book illustrations after designs by such renowned contemporaries as Buchhorn, Chodowiecki, Meil and Ramberg. He compiled a substantial corpus of drawings in which a prominent role is played by figure studies in red chalk. Research into his printmaking œuvre is far from complete.

These confidently treated academic nude studies were probably part of a larger (eight?) sheet series of etchings that are not recorded in the critical literature. They provide a vivid illustration of the artist’s skill as a draughtsman, whose speciality were figure drawings in red chalk. He has executed these works using a highly refined, richly modulated etching technique that is typical of Berlin Classicism. Very fine, contrasting impres­sions with wide margins. Minor ageing, otherwise in excellent condition. Rare.