Wienn in Osterreich (Vienna, Austria) - Friedrich Bernhard Werner
View of Vienna in the 1700s created by Friedrich Bernhard Werner. Copper etching print; hand-colored. Published by Johann Friedrich Probst, 1721-1781 Augsburg. Printed on 2 sheets joined together; size 38 cm x 104 cm, 42 in x 16 in; Large and very decorative view of Vienna with numbering of the important houses and buildings.
The Werner / Probst views are distinguished by the their large size that allows considerable architectural and landscape detail, extending to the delineation of farm buildings, boats and individual trees. Each includes a numbered key identifying important sites and buildings. Friedrich Bernhard Werner was a German printmaker, draftsman and writer of chronicles; Bénézit states he was born in Reichenau, other sources indicate Silesia. As a young man he lived an itinerant and rather bohemian existence as a writer, translator and working in theater. Eventually he settled in Augsburg, where he drew views for the publishing houses of a Martin Engelbrecht (1684-1756), Johann Christian Leopold (1699-1755) and Jeremias Wolff (1663-1724). From 1729, he specialized in panoramic views of towns and he traveled around Europe making nearly 100 views for the Augsburg publishers known as the “Wolff heirs,” which included members of the Probst family and their brother-in-law’s father, Johann Georg Hertel. From the 1740s he settled in Breslau as scenographer to the court of Prussia. In this period of his life he also produced a five-part topographical work on the Duchy of Silesia with some 3,000 pages of manuscript and 1,400 colored ink drawings.
