Christian von Mechel

Christian von Mechel (4 April 1737 in Basel; † 11 April 1817 in Berlin) was a Swiss engraver, publisher and art dealer. He developed a broad trade in art, through business connections throughout northern and central Europe; although the French Revolutionary Wars ruined him financially, he started over in 1805 in Berlin.

Although trained in art and copper etching, he found his niche as a purveyor of art. Joseph II employed him to convert the private Habsburg collection to one available for public display. He was one of the first curators to employ schools of art as a mnemonic system of organization.

Life Christian von Mechel came from a long-established family of artisans in Basel. His father John (1813–07) and grandfather Josias both worked as a coopers, and his mother Salome (Bulacher) was the daughter of a guild master; the family name itself dates to the 16th century, and his maternal great-grandfather, Christian Munch (1678–1747) had been master of the guilds and a Basel magistrate. Originally destined for a career in the clergy, Christian Mechel attended the Basel Latin School. Early, however, he showed a marked interest in art. In the 1750s, as construction in Basel flourished, it occurred to his parents that art might be a lucrative business and he was permitted to pursue this study. In 1753 he visited Augsburg to learn the engraving discipline from Georg Daniel Heumann. In 1757 he briefly worked in Johann Georg Pintz's workshop in Nuremberg. From 1757 to 1764 he lived in Paris, where he studied with Johann Georg Wille and later launched his own studio, where he produced his own work and sold other objets d'art. In 1761, he married Elisabeth Haas (1740–86), the daughter of a respected type caster Johannes Wilhelm Haas from Nuremberg. In 1795, he married again to Friederike von Wagner, daughter of the banker and financier Ludwig Friedrich von Wagner, of Regensburg, but they divorced the following year. Both marriages were childless.

Business venture

Mechel thrived in Paris, learning how to deal with rich clients and developing a feel for the art market. Soon, the businessman, the art dealer and the artist were combined into one; he began signing his name to works produced by talented apprentices and selling them as his own. He returned to Basel in 1765 and in 1766 opened a large art dealer's business and engraving workshop in the St. Johannes quarter of the city (the Vorstadt). He no longer produced anything himself, but supervised 12-15 artists. His shop became a tourist destination in and of itself, promoted by his own excellent connections. As his reputation grew, travelers stopped at his shop in the Vorstadt to buy his prints. He maintained a large magazine of prints, and carried on a sizable trade. The gallery opened five years later, making it one of the first public museums in the world. The opening of the Musée du Louvre during the French Revolution in 1793 as a public museum included much of the former French royal collection marked an important stage in the development of public access to art by transferring the ownership to a republican state; but it was a continuation of trends already well established. Michel was also instrumental in organizing and cataloging this material. During the mid-1790s he speculated, often unwisely, in the purchase of art from large collections from the French emigre noble families. Furthermore, his business in Basel made him an important man. He became a Ratsherr (member of the city council) and a member of Isaac Iselin's Helvetic Society, among the most enlightened and liberal members of Basel elite.

Works

Oeuvre du Chevalier Hedlinger ou recueil des medailles de ce celebre artiste (1776) La Galerie Électorale De Dusseldorff (1778) Hans Holbein – Le triomphe de la mort (1780) Verzeichniß der Gemälde der Kaiserlich Königlichen Bilder-Gallerie in Wien (1783) Karl Gottlieb von Windisch's Briefe über den Schachspieler des Hrn. von Kempelen (1783) Costumes de Paysans et Paysannes de la Suisse (1785) Vorstellungen und Plane der merkwürdigsten Begebenheiten des gegenwärtigen Krieges der Österreicher und Russen gegen die Türken (1790) Explication des renvois de l'estampe enluminée, qui représente la vallé de Chamouni, le Mont-Blanc et les montagnes adjacentes (1791) Entwurf einer Kunstgeschichte Helvetiens (1791) Itinéraire du St. Gothard, d'une partie de Vallais et des contrées de la Suisse, que l'on traverse ordinairement pour se rendre au Gothard (1795) Recueil de Vues choisies de la Suisse (1796) Tableaux historiques et topographiques, ou relations exactes et impartiales des trois événemens mémorables qui terminèrent la campagne de 1796 sur le Rhin (1798) Soldaten- und Plotons-Schule für die Infanterie aus dem französischen Reglement (1799) Plan, Durchschnitt und Aufriß der drey merkwürdigsten hölzernen Brücken in der Schweiz (1803) Tableau comparatif des montagnes de la Lune, de Venus, de Mercure et de quelques-unes de plus hautes montagnes de la Terre (1806) Lucas Cranach's Stammbuch (1814) Bildnisse sämmtlicher zu dem Throne von Frankreich zurückberufenen Bourbons (1814) Den gekrönten Befreiern Europas jetzt in Wien versammelt ... widmet die Abbildung der Eisernen Hand des ... Götz von Berlichingen (1815)

Citations and notes