August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof | |
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| Born | (1705-03-30)March 30, 1705 |
| Died | 27 March 1759(1759-03-27) (aged 53) |
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| Children | Katharina Barbara Rösel von Rosenhof |
August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof (March 30, 1705 inAugustenburg nearArnstadt – March 27, 1759 inNuremberg) was a Germanminiature painter,naturalist andentomologist. With his accurate, heavily detailed images of insects he was recognised as an important figure in modernentomology.
Descendant of a "noble family of Austria", Rösel was born August Johannes Rösel. This was modified in 1753, undoubtedly in the honour of his uncle, the animal painterWilhelm Rösel von Rosenhof. Rösel’s father died when he was very young and it was his uncle who gave him an artistic education after his godmother, the princessAugusta Dorothea von Arnstadt-Schwarzburg, had detected his talent. He continued studies of art at theAcademy of Nuremberg (1724–1726) where he became a very gifted painter of portraits and miniatures, which enabled him to join theDanish court ofCopenhagen in 1726. There he remained two years before returning to Germany, once more to Nuremberg.
Recovering from a disease, he discovered the work ofAnna Maria Sibylla Merian,Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1647–1717) in which she described the insects and other animals which she observed inSurinam. Rösel conceived the idea to write and illustrate a similar book on the German fauna.
In 1737, he married Elisabeth Maria, the daughter of the surgeon, physiologist and poetMichael Bertram Rosa. In 1741 they had a daughterKatharina Barbara Rösel von Rosenhof, who would also become an artist.[1]
His artistic talent gave him a very good reputation so that he lived comfortably while painting and he could use his spare time to observeinsects,amphibians andreptiles in nature. He collected eggs and larvae in order to raise them at home and to study their development and theirmetamorphoses. His detailed observations, more useful by being accompanied by very beautiful illustrations, were published in two large books. The first,Insecten-Belustigung, appeared in 1740 and was devoted to the insects and other invertebrates like thesea anemones. His classification of the insects followed a natural system and he is regarded as one of the fathers of German entomology.[2] The fourth part is practically a monograph of the spiderAraneus diadematus. The description of the animal is illustrated by six plates which show the differences in variation of the colouring of the species. They show also internal dissections. Rosenhof was interested in the production of silk but he confused the anus with the opening of silk-producing glands.
He published, between 1753 and 1758,Historia naturalis Ranarum nostratium devoted tofrogs. The quality of the work, in particular of its illustrations, make it one of the most beautiful devoted to these animals. He presented the life cycle of all the species of Germany, and their anatomy and their osteology. The second part of the work, appeared in 1758. It is prefaced byAlbrecht von Haller (1708–1777).
He then started a similar work on the lizards and the salamanders but a cerebral attack paralysed him and he died a little later on March 27, 1759. Many descriptions of species made byCarl von Linné are based on the descriptions given by Rösel.
Roesel's bush-cricketMetrioptera roeseli was so named in his honour.
