Weimar Princely Free Drawing School
The Weimar Princely Free Drawing School was an art and literature educational establishment. It was set up in 1776 in Weimar by the scholar and ducal private-secretary Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747–1822) and the painter Georg Melchior Kraus (1737–1806), as part of Weimar Classicism. It was financed by the young Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and heavily promoted by Goethe, who also taught there. Among its pupils were Charles Augustus's future mistress Karoline Jagemann. It lasted until 1930.
Theobald von Oer (1807–1885): The Weimar Court of the Muses. – In 1860, 55 years after Schiller's death in 1805, this oil painting was produced of a reading of his poems in the park of the Schloss Tiefurt. Among the listeners, to the right, is Goethe.
Georg Melchior Kraus, Self-portrait
Ferdinand Jagemann, Self-portrait
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; by Joseph Karl Stieler
Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch was a German publisher and patron of the arts. He co-founded the Weimar Princely Free Drawing School with the painter Georg Melchior Kraus in 1776. He was the father of the writer and journalist Karl Bertuch.
JF Bertuch's Kinderbuch – title page
JF Bertuch's Kinderbuch – Wonders of the world
JF Bertuch's Kinderbuch – Mythological creatures
JF Bertuch's Kinderbuch – Fish
