JOHANN CHRISTOPH ERHARD

Erhard trained as an artist in his hometown of Nuremberg. He moved to Vienna in 1816 with his close friend, Johann Adam Klein, and stayed there until October 1819 when he traveled to Rome. He committed suicide there in 1822.

Erhard’s etchings from his Vienna period count among his masterpieces and must also be seen in the context of landscapes by his Austrian contemporaries. In 1817 he had traveled with his friends Ernst Welker and Heinrich Reinhold through the Höllenthal in Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), flanked by the Schneeberg mountain on one side and Rax mountain on the other. This picturesque area not far from Vienna was especially popular with artists during the early nineteenth century. Erhard produced a series of etchings based on sketches he had made in the valley, published in 1818 by Ferdinand Kettner in Vienna under the title VI. Ansichten aus den Umgebungen des Schneeberges bei Wiener Neustadt (Apell 11–16).

Erhard’s two scenes from the Schneeberg region might be seen as pendants; each is dominated by a Betsäule (roadside cross) intended to suggest that the nearby buildings are under God’s protection. While one of the images shows a woman carrying wood with a child, in the other the artist depicts a man passing the cross with a pack on his back in the manner of a hiker, very much like Erhard and his companions. In both landscapes Erhard favors a detailed foreground scene over the dramatic vistas offered by the mountain ranges and this is entirely characteristic of his work of the period.

Erhard trained as an artist in his hometown of Nuremberg. He moved to Vienna in 1816 with his close friend, Johann Adam Klein, and stayed there until October 1819 when he traveled to Rome. He committed suicide there in 1822.

Erhard’s etchings from his Vienna period count among his masterpieces and must also be seen in the context of landscapes by his Austrian contemporaries. In 1817 he had traveled with his friends Ernst Welker and Heinrich Reinhold through the Höllenthal in Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), flanked by the Schneeberg mountain on one side and Rax mountain on the other. This picturesque area not far from Vienna was especially popular with artists during the early nineteenth century. Erhard produced a series of etchings based on sketches he had made in the valley, published in 1818 by Ferdinand Kettner in Vienna under the title VI. Ansichten aus den Umgebungen des Schneeberges bei Wiener Neustadt (Apell 11–16).

Erhard’s two scenes from the Schneeberg region might be seen as pendants; each is dominated by a Betsäule (roadside cross) intended to suggest that the nearby buildings are under God’s protection. While one of the images shows a woman carrying wood with a child, in the other the artist depicts a man passing the cross with a pack on his back in the manner of a hiker, very much like Erhard and his companions. In both landscapes Erhard favors a detailed foreground scene over the dramatic vistas offered by the mountain ranges and this is entirely characteristic of his work of the period.