Sketchbook Attr. To Adolph Siebert (1806-1832)

Sketchbook, pages loose, with 52 drawings in pencil of classical and biblical subjects, attributed to Adolph Siebert (1806-1832), 24 x 20 cm. 

'A gifted portrait and history painter from Brandenburg an der Havel, deaf from birth, he became a student of Wilhelm Wach no later than 1823 and was supported by him. He exhibited at the Berlin Academy from 1826 to 1832. In 1829, he won first prize for his history painting "Jupiter and Mercury with Philomen and Baucis," receiving a scholarship from the Academy to Rome, which enabled him to leave immediately. There, he joined the circle of Wach's students, the Ponte Molle Society, and the German Library Association. Adolph Kestner painted his portrait in 1831 (lost in the war, now part of the Kestner Museum). He died in Rome at the age of 25.

Raczynski praised the freshness and refinement of his works. Only 12 of his works can be traced through the Academy exhibition catalogs. The only surviving painting, "Daedalus and Icarus" (1826 exhibition debut), is preserved in the Brandenburg an der Havel City Museum. Also included is a drawing from 1827 (a friendship portrait of Wilhelm Ahlborn, August Hopfgarten, Morgan Library, New York), and a lithograph, probably a self-portrait (among others, in the Gleimhaus, Halberstadt). Not well researched, still to be discovered.' [kl-bb, Berlin-Brandenburg Artists' Lexicon]