Retzsch, Moritz, 1779-1857

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a leading German dramatist, poet, and literary theorist best remembered for such dramas as Die Rauber (1781; The Robbers), the Wallenstein trilogy (1800-01), Maria Stuart (1801), and Wilhelm Tell (1804). Friedrich von Schiller - Encyclopedia Britannica Online http://www.eb.com (Retrieved May 5, 2009)

Friedrich August Moritz Retsch was born in the Saxon capital Dresden. He joined the Dresden Academy of Arts in 1798 under Cajetan Toscani and Józef Grassi, later working autodidactically, copying the famous pictures of the Gemäldegalerie, among them a copy of the Sixtinian Madonna. He was made a member of the Academy in 1817 and professor in 1824. The Cotta publishing house commissioned illustrations for Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust, which made him financially independent. Goethe liked his work and he illustrated works by other famous authors, among them Friedrich Schiller and William Shakespeare. Many of his works were created in house in the Lößnitz, with a view of the Elbe Valley. Retzch died in Oberlössnitz/Redebeul.

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