Bildnis Johann Joseph Schweigart 

Gustav Heinrich Naeke made this portrait of Johann Joseph Schweigart with graphite on paper. The portrait dates from 1801 and it shows the Neoclassical aesthetic then dominant in German art academies, where the emphasis was on draftsmanship. But portraits were also important as documents of status. Who was important enough to be portrayed, and how? Here, Schweigart is shown in profile, with a sober expression. The relative austerity of the portrait reflects the ascendance of middle-class values in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Artists were increasingly dependent on middle-class patrons and their tastes, which favored moralizing depictions of everyday life. To understand this portrait further, a researcher could consult archival records from the Städel Museum, where it is housed, to find out more about the relationship between the artist and his sitter, and consider the tastes of the local art market.