Conrad Meyer

The recorded working language is German. Places of work recorded in the authority are Zurich. Work by Conrad Meyer is recorded in the collections of Nationalmuseum, Städel Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Art Institute of Chicago and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

• Name — Conrad Meyer • Born — 3 October 1618 • Birthplace — Zurich, Old Swiss Confederacy • Died — 15 January 1689 • Place of death — Zurich, Old Swiss Confederacy • Field — Painting, drawing, etching • Father — Dietrich Meyer the Elder • Relatives — Rudolf Meyer (brother)

Conrad Meyer was born in Zurich on 3 October 1618 into a family of artists. His father, Dietrich Meyer the Elder, was a painter and engraver, while his brother Rudolf Meyer also became an artist. After receiving his initial training from his father, Meyer travelled between 1638 and 1642, spending time in Bern and Solothurn before continuing to Germany. In Frankfurt, he worked with Matthäus Merian the Elder. Meyer later returned to Zurich, where he pursued a career as a painter, draughtsman and etcher. In 1649, he married Susanna Murer, a granddaughter of Jos Murer. Their son Johannes Meyer the Younger also became an artist. He died in Zurich on 15 January 1689.

Meyer worked in painting, drawing and etching across a wide range of subjects, including portraiture, religious and historical scenes, landscapes and illustration. He became one of the leading artists active in seventeenth-century Zurich. Printmaking nevertheless formed a particularly important part of Meyer's career, with around 1,000 prints and illustrations known to have survived. His output included several extensive biblical and devotional series. For the Zurich civic library’s New Year publication of 1645, Meyer created an etching about table manners intended to teach young people proper behaviour at meals. Johann Wilhelm Simler wrote the accompanying verses. The publication began the library’s annual series of Zurich New Year sheets. He also accepted substantial commissions from Catholic patrons, including more than 100 etched images of saints. Portraiture was an important source of income for Meyer in Zurich. He produced around 200 portraits, mainly of guild masters, councillors and clergy. Meyer also depicted locations in Zurich territory and elsewhere in the Old Swiss Confederacy. His 1647 painting of the Rhine Falls has been described as the earliest topographically accurate depiction of the site. His landscape work was an important part of his contribution to Swiss art. He was among the earliest artists to treat the surrounding landscape as an independent subject. Meyer and Jan Hackaert travelled through Switzerland four times between 1653 and 1657. During their 1655 journey through the Glarus region, Meyer produced large drawings based on close observation of the mountain landscape. The expedition has been described as the earliest European artistic journey devoted specifically to the high Alps. The resulting drawings have been described as early landmarks of Swiss landscape art. Meyer’s works are held in several Swiss public collections, including the Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zentralbibliothek Zürich, the Graphische Sammlung at ETH Zurich and the Swiss National Museum.

• Illustration — Löntsch Valley, Canton of Glarus, 1655 • Illustration — Zurich in summer, c. 1661 • Illustration — Zurich in winter, c. 1661 • Illustration — Portrait of Johann Heinrich Waser, mayor of Zurich, 1654 • Illustration — Portrait of Joseph von Orelli as a boy, 1657 • Illustration — Portrait medal of Johann Heinrich Waser, 1668 • Illustration — Portrait of Théodore de Bèze, 1676 • Illustration — Double portrait of the executioner Volmar and his wife, 1677