Johann Nepomuk Hoechle Travelling Trader from Paris

An original early 19th-century pen & ink drawing, Johann Nepomuk Hoechle, Travelling Trader from Paris.

An interesting ink sketch of a tradeswoman travelling by pack mule by Austrian artist Johann Nepomuk Hoechle (or Höchle as he sometimes signed) (1790–1835). The German inscription indicates that she is a trader from Paris.

Hoechle was an Austrian painter and lithographer who specialised in scenes from military actions and current events. His father was court painter for the Habsburgs and Johann was apprenticed at a young age to the engraver and etcher Ferdinand Kobell. From 1804 to 1808 he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he studied history painting with Heinrich Friedrich Füger and landscape painting with Michael Wutky. His later career as a battle painter probably came from the influence of the French marine and military artist, Ignace Duvivier, whom Hoechle met while he was visiting Vienna. Hoechle made more sketches at the scenes of major military events, on behalf of Austrian Emperor Francis I, and turned them into paintings at his studio. He also painted the portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven. In 1833, he was chosen to succeed his father as court painter, but died only two years later.

On thin wove paper laid down on backing paper.