Portret van Johann Heinrich Burckhard 1737 - 1775

Georg Friedrich Schmidt made this print of Johann Heinrich Burckhard, likely in the mid-18th century. It’s an etching – a printmaking technique that allowed for the relatively quick reproduction of images. Prints like these served important social functions in the 1700s, circulating images of prominent people throughout intellectual and political networks. Burckhard, as the inscription tells us, was a ‘Medicinae Doctor’ and ‘Archiater’, meaning physician and personal doctor. These positions were granted by institutions, like universities or royal courts, and they were symbols of social status. Here, Burckhard is presented in an oval frame, a typical formula for portraiture at the time. He wears a large, powdered wig and an elaborate coat, visual codes that signal his elevated status. These kinds of images and their modes of circulation were a key part of the social fabric of 18th-century Europe. Catalogues of prints from the period, or correspondence between collectors and institutions, can help us understand the nature of that fabric more clearly.