Kopf des Malers Ernst Schalck 

Johann Heinrich Hasselhorst made this sketch of the painter Ernst Schalck in pencil at an unknown date. It shows Schalck in profile, his hair tied back, with a short beard. Hasselhorst was a German painter and etcher and this work is interesting because it is a portrait of one artist by another. In Germany at this time, artistic training was becoming formalized through the art academy system. It’s possible that this drawing emerged from such an institutional setting, as artist training often involved the drawing of portraits of fellow artists and teachers. Further research into the archives of art academies from the period may shed light on the connection between these two artists and the context in which this work was made. Art history is not just about the artwork itself, it’s about the artists, the institutions, and the social networks in which they operated.