A pro-American perspective on the American Revolution: Johann Heinrich Ramberg’s (1763–1840) adaptations of illustrations by Daniel Chodowiecki

Abstract

The Allgemeines Historisches Taschenbuch, oder Abriss der merkwürdigsten neuen Welt-Begebenheiten (General Historical Pocketbook, or Outline of the most remarkable new world events), published in Berlin in 1784 and supported by the Academy of Arts, contained one of the most important contemporary accounts of the North American Revolution, titled Geschichte der Revolution von Nord-Amerika (History of the North American Revolution) by Matthias Christian Sprengel, professor at Göttingen University. It further contained influential illustrations, among them twelve engravings designed by Academy member Daniel Chodowiecki, each depicting a key motif from the American struggle for independence and its outcome. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), an original copy of the pocket book with the Geschichte der Revolution has been preserved, and it is unique in that eleven drawings by Johann Heinrich Ramberg are glued in in addition to the original plates. Ramberg of Hanover was to follow Chodowiecki as the most prolific artist in German book illustration. Several of the drawings are dated 1786 or 1787, when the young Ramberg was a fellow at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, studying under the American history painter Benjamin West. These drawings are examined and published in their entirety here for the first time. An article published in Amerikastudien in 1978 first mentioned the drawings in the Metropolitan Museum and their obvious connection to the Chodowiecki prints, stating they posed a “puzzling iconographic problem” because the German artist in London appeared to change the viewpoint in at least one case. This article follows up on Jantz’s observation. It examines how Chodowiecki’s designs all show the perspective of the British or share a “neutral” outsider perspective. I argue that in nearly all cases, Ramberg moves the observer closer to the action, takes on the perspective of the Americans or one sympathetic to them, shows more emotion and movement than Chodowiecki, and thus invites an emotional reaction from the viewer. The question of whether Ramberg planned publication, though, remains unanswered.