The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

Niklaus Friedrich von Steiger

Joseph Einsle

Joseph Bernhard Einsle’s works are characterised by a powerful and direct presentation using strong, contrasting areas of colour delineated by sharp contours.1
His portrait of Niklaus Friedrich von Steiger (1729– 1799), the last Schultheiss (council leader) of the old imperial city of Berne, is a bust portrait reproducing a section of a painting by Anton Hickel dated 1787.2 The black robe occupies almost the entire lower half of the miniature and, together with the broad red sash, gives the portrait a solemn dignity. The collar of very thin and translucent material – which had replaced the ruffs worn until 1675 – and the rather woolly hair form a border to the face, whose contours are created with harsh shadows.
Steiger was highly regarded in Berne for his expertise and his diplomacy. He opposed the ideas of the French Revolution, was an unswerving supporter of the old order, and was also active in the military against the occupying French.3
J. S. O.

1 For detailed information on the artist, see Rainer Rückert, „Der Porträt-Miniaturmaler Joseph Bernhard Einsle, 1774-1829“, in: Weltkunst 54 (1984), pp. 2900-2904, 3206-3213, 3455-3459.
2 Catalogue of the Burgerbibliothek of Berne. Hickel painted a whole-figure portrait of von Steiger at a table with the insignia of his office. The face and body are shown here as somewhat slenderer and more distinctive. Yet the position of the head, the hairstyle, collar, and sash leave no doubt as to the original (in a private collection).
3 The Bernisches Historisches Museum holds a coloured drawing of Steiger’s burial in 1805. He had died six years previously near Zurich, but his body was exhumed and brought to Berne, where it was buried with a grand ceremony.