Oriental Men and Roman Soldiers
  • Tiberius D. Wocher
  • Mimmenhausen/Salem 1728 - 1799 Reute
  • Oriental Men and Roman Soldiers, 1798
  • en and brown ink, various brown washes, numerous framing lines with pen and ink, on laid paper
  • signed and dated with pen on the lower right: T. Wocher inv. 1798
  • 320 × 220 mm
Provenance:
Prof. Dr. Albrecht (1984, as inscribed on the old mount)

This excellent draftsman spent the majority of his active artistic life in Switzerland, among other places in Bern, where he served as an emissary and court painter for the Archbishop of Constance until 1780. There, he made a name for himself especially as a portrait painter and etcher.

At the same time, Wocher also possessed a unique gusto for depictions of Orientals, or people in Oriental costumes, which became a second hallmark of his art. In the process, Wocher preferentially selected pen and brown ink, as this finely-executed sheet demonstrates in exemplary fashion. Along with two distinctly aged Orientals two soldiers in ancient Roman uniforms enliven the scenery and give the image a kind of theatrical touch. The monument, with its flower-crowned portrait relief, guarded by a lion, does not at all want to fit into antiquity.