Vue près de la Porte dit Peters-Thor, à Leipzig. / Prospect bey dem Peters-Thor, zu Leiptzig.

Title

Vue près de la Porte dit Peters-Thor, à Leipzig. / Prospect bey dem Peters-Thor, zu Leiptzig.

Description

View (Vues d'Optique) of the Petershor in Leipzig, Saxony.

ca. 1780

Artist

Probst (1732-1801)

Georg Balthasar Probst (1732–1801), Georg Balthasar Probst was a German artist, engraver and publisher in Augsburg, a major European publishing center in the 17th and 18th centuries. He produced architectural views of places around the world intended as vues d’optiques, which were published in various places during the last half of the 18th century, including Paris, Augsburg and London. He was also known for his portraits. Probst came from an extended family of printers, whose businesses can all be traced back to the publishing firm of Jeremias Wolff (1663-1724). After Wolff's death his firm was continued as “Wolff’s Heirs” (Haeres Jer. Wolffii) by his son-in-law Johann Balthasar Probst (1689-1750). After Probst’s death in 1750, his descendants divided the business and published under their own imprints: Johann Friedrich Probst (1721-1781), Georg Balthasar Probst (1732-1801) and Johann Michael Probst. Another part of the Wolff-Probst firm was acquired by the Augsburg publisher Johann Georg Hertel (1700-1775), whose son Georg Leopold Hertel had married a sister of the Probsts. In the next generation, Georg Mathäus Probst (d. 1788), son of Georg Balthasar Probst, also became an engraver of portraits and views.

Historical Description

The history of Leipzig was shaped by its importance as a trading center. Thanks to its favorable location at the intersection of trade routes and trade fair privileges, it already held an outstanding position in the trade in goods, and later also in the printing and book trade. Leipzig was never a royal seat or a bishopric and was always characterized by urban bourgeoisie. The University of Leipzig, founded in 1409, is one of the oldest universities in what is now the Federal Republic of Germany. Leipzig acquired the nickname "Little Paris" when the progressive trade fair city was equipped with street lighting in 1701 and from then on could be compared with the glamorous Seine metropolis. At the beginning of the 18th century, Georg Philipp Telemann studied in Leipzig and founded the Collegium musicum here. From 1723 until his death in 1750, Johann Sebastian Bach was employed by the city council as Thomaskantor and “Director musices” (head of all church music in the city). This is where u. a. the St. John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion, the Christmas Oratorio, the B minor Mass and the art of the fugue. In 1729 Bach took over the management of the Collegium Musicum, which until 1741 performed numerous of his secular cantatas and instrumental compositions in Zimmermann's coffee house.