"Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch (December 9, 1779 - June 11, 1857) was a German painter, draughtsman, and etcher.
Retzsch was born in the Saxon capital Dresden. He ...
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joined the Dresden Academy of Fine 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 (26 plates), which made him financially independent. Goethe liked his work, and he illustrated works by other famous authors, most notably Friedrich Schiller´s Lied von der Glocke (43 plates), a Shakespeare Gallery (80 plates), and Bürger´s Ballads (15 plates). He also did oil paintings on classical subjects, and portraits. Many of his works were created in a house in the Lößnitz, with a view of the Elbe Valley.[citation needed]" - (en.wikipedia.org 22.09.2019)