
Detail from Un faiseur de flutte / Ein Pfeiffenmacher (A Male Wind Instrument Maker) by Michael Rössler, published by Martin Engelbrecht, 18th century. Dayton C. Miller Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
published by Martin Engelbrecht, engraver, 1684-1756
A man, a woodwind instrument maker, stands in the center of the composition, holding a workbench over his head. There is a curved hedge with trees on the left and right in the background. At the left, a seated musician wears a tricorn hat and plays an instrument that may be an oboe; at the right, a man leans against a wall and plays a transverse flute. The woodwind instrument maker has instruments and tools attached to his person, each identified by a number corresponding to text beneath him describing the instrument or tool. Number 6 is an oboe; number 7 is a bassoon; numbers 8 and 9 are cornetts; number 10 represents recorders of various sizes.
This etching was included in The Pipers: An Exhibition of Engravings, Watercolors and Lithographs from the Dayton C. Miller Collection, Library of Congress, March 1977. See a companion print of a woman instrument maker, 0369/L.
About the Artist
Michael Rössler, engraver, 1705-1777
Michael Rössler was a German engraver who was born in Nuremburg in 1705 and who died in Copenhagen in 1777. He engraved many portraits and his most important work was for the Journal du couronnement de Charles VII (Journal of the coronation of Charles VII).[1]
Notes
- This biographical information on Rössler is derived from Bénézit. [back to article]