Professor Johann Georg Sulzer

18th century · Print

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “Professor Johann Georg Sulzer” now? Collection: Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.

Cambridge, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

18 November 1736
Born
1765
Invitation to Dresden: Hagedorn asks him to apply
Back in Winterthur and Zurich in 1765, he receives from Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn, newly appointed director of the recently established Dresden Art Academy, an invitation to apply for a post. Graff hesitates, thinking himself not good enough for the princely court of Saxony.
16 January 1766
A self-portrait wins Hagedorn: a contract in a day
To give Hagedorn an impression of his talent he sends him a self-portrait; it arrives in Dresden on 16 January 1766 and is so well received that only a day later Hagedorn draws up Graff’s employment contract.
7 April 1766
Arrives in Dresden as court painter
On 7 April 1766 he arrives in Dresden, where he is appointed court painter and teacher of portrait painting at the academy. He keeps the academy post for life, although he gets better-paid offers from other academies; his pupils include Emma Körner, Philipp Otto Runge and Karl Ludwig Kaaz.
1768
Meets Goethe in Dresden
In Dresden he meets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Graff becomes the main portrait painter of German poets from the Enlightenment to early Romanticism, and many of them are also his friends.
20 June 1789
Appointed professor of portrait painting in Dresden
On 7 May 1789 Graff tells Count Camillo Marcolini, general director of the Dresden Art Academy, about the Berlin offer; Marcolini reacts straight away, and on 20 June Graff is appointed professor of portrait painting at the Dresden Academy.