George Johann Scharf | |
|---|---|
 Drawing of South American fossil skull of toxodon platensis for Charles Darwin, 1838 | |
| Born | 1788 (1788) |
| Died | 1860 (aged 71–72) |
| Occupations | illustrator, water colour painter, draughtsman, and lithographer. |
George Johann Scharf (1788–1860) was awater colour painter,draughtsman andlithographer, and father of SirGeorge Scharf andHenry Scharf. He exhibited his paintings at theRoyal Academy from 1817 to 1850, and was a member of theNew Society of Painters in Water Colours.
George Scharf was born inMainburg,Bavaria in 1788. He was the son of Andreas Scharf and Franziska (née von Peffenhausen).[1] When he was thirteen Scharf left Mainburg and moved toGeisenfeld, a small village, where he took drawing lessons with Herr Kiermeyer. In 1805 he left for Munich where he enrolled as a student at theMaler-und Bildhauerakademie, later becoming theKönigliche Akademie der Bilden Künste München where he studied the old master pictures in the Pinakothek (Neue Pinakothek).[1]Maximilian Joseph noticed the young artist and purchased his copy of a portrait of PrinceEugène de Beauharnais. After working for a few years as a miniature painter and drawing master, Scharf learned the technique of lithography, which had been recently invented by his fellow countrymanAlois Senefelder. Scharf left Germany and wandered for five years in France and theLow Countries.[2] Caught up in the siege of Antwerp in 1814, Scharf escaped and joined the English army, where he was appointed lieutenant of baggage in the engineer department. In this capacity he was present at theBattle of Waterloo and accompanied the allied armies to Paris. While there, he drew some views of theBois de Boulogne. Advised to try his fortune in England, Scharf left on New Year's Day 1816 and came to London, where he became a successful illustrator of ordinary life in England.
After Scharf arrived in London, he married Elizabeth Hicks, his landlady's sister, and lived in a house onSt Martin's Lane. At the time, London was a thriving centre for lithography, and Scharf was able to make a respectable living off his topographical views and genre scenes, which were easily transformed into prints.[3] Although George Scharf's life has not been as well-documented as that of his son, he has left to posterity over a thousand drawings, watercolours and lithographs that chronicle London life in the first half of the 19th Century. Most of these works are stored in theBritish Museum.[4] It was Scharf's ambition to be "taken seriously as a ‘gentleman’ artist rather than as the ‘artisan’ printmaker[5] on which his fame rests today.
During his first years in London, Scharf concentrated on drawing historic events, such as the Westminster Elections of 1818.[6] He then branched out, creating genre images of daily life for German publishers who had settled in London, such asRudolph Ackermann, and illustrations for a number of London's scientific institutions, such as theZoological andGeological Societies and theRoyal College of Surgeons. Many examples of his skill are contained in the Transactions of the Geological Society and the works of Dr Buckland, Sir Richard Owen, and Professor Sedgwick. He also painted many diagrams of scientific and antiquarian subjects. In 1817, he sent four portraits to theRoyal Academy, and from 1826 was a frequent exhibitor, chiefly of topographical views both at the academy and with theNew Society of Painters in Water Colours, of which he was elected a member in 1833.[2][7] In 1830 Scharf made a lithographic print based onHenry De la Beche'sDuria Antiquior watercolour, which is credited as being the first scene of prehistoric life fromdeep time to be widely circulated.[8]
His drawings brought him into contact withCharles Darwin, who commissioned Scharf for a series of illustrations of fossil bones from South America. But the two men had a falling out, for Darwin felt that Scharf's price was too high and that he was (in modern parlance) being ripped off. After this event, Scharf's future commissions with scientific institutions began to dry up, and in his last years, Scharf struggled to sell his work.[9]
Scharf died at 29Great George Street, Westminster, on 11 November 1860, aged 72. He was buried in theBrompton cemetery.[2] He was survived by his wife Elizabeth Hicks, who lived until 1869, and two sons, George, afterwards SirGeorge Scharf, andHenry Scharf. After his death, Scharf's wife sold over a thousand of his drawings and watercolours to theBritish Museum.[9]
This information was taken fromThe Royal Academy of Arts; a complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904[10]
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