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(2) Matthäus Merian (ii)
(bapt Basle, 25 March 1621; bur Frankfurt am Main, 15 Feb 1687). Son of (1) Matthäus Merian (i). The chief sources for his life are a short autobiography and a large collection of correspondence in the Nationalmuseets Archiv, Stockholm. He first learnt etching with his father, then in 1635 studied painting with Joachim von Sandrart. In 1637 he travelled with Sandrart to Amsterdam, where he ended his apprenticeship. He then went to England, working under Anthony van Dyck. After the latter’s death in 1641 he went via Paris (where he came under the influence of Simon Vouet) back to Frankfurt. From 1643–5 he lived in Italy, first in Venice and then in Rome and Naples, where he studied the work of Jusepe de Ribera. He spent the years from 1648–50 mainly in the service of the Swedish field-marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel (1613–76), achieving much success in painting portraits of him and his officers. After his father’s death in 1650 Merian the younger took over the management of the Merian publishing house in Frankfurt. He promoted the publication of the Theatrum Europaeum, to which he added many engravings after his portraits. In the meantime he travelled in Germany from court to court, painting many portraits, and also history pictures and church paintings: for example for the Tucher family altarpiece an Ecce homo (1659; now Nuremberg, St Sebald, Kirchenverwalt.). His virtuosity in portrait-painting—he became a competitor of his teacher Sandrart—brought commissions from Emperor Leopold I to mark his coronation in Frankfurt in 1658 (e.g. equestrian portrait, 1659; Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.), the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the Margrave of Baden-Baden and Baden-Durlach and also from Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg. These oil-paintings, sometimes rather hastily executed, and sketches are to be found in great numbers in museums (e.g. Basle, Kstmus. and Hist. Mus.) and collections such as the castles of Skokloster and Gripsholm in Sweden. The portrait of the Merian family (1641; Basle, Kstmus.; see fig.) with the artist, his parents and five brothers and sisters is a notable example. Also extant are numerous portrait sketches (e.g. Basle, Kstmus.; Karlsruhe, Staatl. Ksthalle; and Munich, Staatl. Graph. Samml.) in black and white chalk on blue paper. His liberal, eclectic style led the secretary of the French Ambassador to dub him in 1663 ‘the best artist in Germany’. From his papers Merian emerges as a likable, self-confident man of the world and a talented businessman.
Part of the Merian family
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