Christian Gottlieb Welte

Christian Gottlieb Welté (3 December 1745/49 – 17 December 1792) [ [http://www.oberphalen.lib.ee/pages/kodukoha-ajalugu/baltisakslased.php 20 famous Baltic Germans in the Põltsamaa history] (in Estonian)] was an etcher and landscape painter from Mainz, Germany.

His works, accomplished mostly in small format, represent rococo and transition to early classicism. In Estonia, he painted figural staffages on large Põltsamaa landscapes and depicted Estonian peasants in the 1780’s; in Mainz and Frankfurt-am-Main he was known mostly as an etcher and a landscapist. Welté was a typical artist of the Enlightenment – pensive, developing and nonconformist. [ [http://www.ekm.ee/eng/kalender.php?event_id=387&d_fili=1 Exhibition: Rococo in Estonia. Gottlieb Welte] ]

He worked in Estonia in the late 18th century at the Põltsamaa castle [ [http://www.poltsamaa.ee/index.php?main_id=72,1576,1581 History of the Põltsamaa castle] (in Estonian)] and Põltsamaa porcelain manufacture (1781-1784), then as a homeschool teacher in the Võisiku manor (1785-1788) and spent his last years at the Lohu manor in the present-day Kohila Parish, Rapla County, where he died in 1792.

His most important work, the illusionist fresco wall paintings in the hall of the Lohu manor covering 27,6 m², were discovered in the 1960’s under the Grisaille pictorial fresco wall papers on the theme of Don Quixote, printed by Pierre Jacquemart and Eugene Bernard in Paris, France. [ [http://www.muuseum.harju.ee/Moisad/arhitektuur_a_varaklassitsism_lohu3.html Image of the Hall of Lohu manor] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.artnet.com/artist/697383/gottlieb-welte.html Gottlieb Welté at galleries and auctions worldwide]
* [http://www.mois.ee/english/harju/lohu.shtml Lohu Manor]
* [http://www.mois.ee/english/vilj/poltsamaa.shtml Põltsamaa Manor (Castle)]