Background
John Eckstein was born on November 25, 1735, at Poppenreuth, Fürth, and was active in Potsdam after about 1772.
John Eckstein was born on November 25, 1735, at Poppenreuth, Fürth, and was active in Potsdam after about 1772.
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.
For the third edition of Freneau’s Poems (Philadelphia, 1809), 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 (post) he "was painting and engraving as late as 1822. "
John Eckstein was one of the original members of the Columbian Society of Artists
and an associate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
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 [1800] an old man, and he has been dead many years. "
