Background
John Eckstein was born in Germany, probably in Mecklenburg on November 25, 1735, the son of Conrad Eckstein, a woodcarver and cabinet-maker, and was the elder brother of George Paul Eckstein.
John Eckstein was born in Germany, probably in Mecklenburg on November 25, 1735, the son of Conrad Eckstein, a woodcarver and cabinet-maker, and was the elder brother of George Paul Eckstein.
He studied under Preissler, at the Academy of Arts at Nuremberg before moving to England.
John was active in Potsdam after about 1772. In 1786 he made a deathmask and a plaster bust of Frederick the Great, and in the exhibitions of the Berlin Academy of that year, of 1788, and of 1791, was represented by an equestrian statue of Frederick, in imperial Roman costume. About the year 1794 he settled in Philadelphia, where he resided until 1817.
He described himself variously in the city directories as "limner, " "engraver, " and "merchant, " and the directory for 1797 lists John Eckstein & Son as "statuaries. " Eckstein was one of the original members of the Columbian Society of Artists, at whose exhibitions he showed examples of modeling, and was also an associate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. While in Philadelphia, he engraved in stipple several portraits and a design for a "Monument of General Washington" which he proposed for erection - one of the first public suggestions for such a memorial of the first president of the United States. In his "Proposals" for publishing this design, the artist referred to himself as "formerly historical painter and statuary to the King of Prussia. "
For the third edition of Freneau's Poems, he engraved frontispieces for the two volumes. They are decidedly of the mixed style, but are full of artistic feeling. In 1812 he exhibited at the Academy Exhibition, in Philadelphia, a model for an equestrian statue of Washington, and in 1813, a "model in burnt clay, " entitled "Genius of America. "
Eckstein's name was apparently dropped from the city directories after 1817 and the exhibition catalogues of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts state that he died in that year, although according to Stauffer he "was painting and engraving as late as 1822. "
Quotes from others about the person
Thomas Sully wrote of Eckstein that he "was a thoroughgoing drudge in the arts. He could do you a picture in still life - history - landscape - portrait - he could model - cut a head in marble - or anything you please. I found him when I removed to Philadelphia an old man, and he has been dead many years".
