ABSTRACT

In 1779, Germany's first periodical dedicated to the visual arts began its inaugural issue with an article entitled 'On new coloured English engravings'. It should first be noted that the relation of Germany to the British engraved image was from the beginning that of a consumer, a position which is the subject of Daniel Purdy's recent study on Anglo-German relations during this period. Although the concept of the ideal was not one usually associated with British art, the Clara's reception as among the 'best' of the newer British art, indicates a change in perception, at least in Germany, by the later decades of the eighteenth century. The Annalen, with its descriptions and comments, contributed to the making 'visible' of one region/culture to another, and as such can be regarded as a type of travel account, or Reisebeschreibung, which by 1750 had become one of Germany's largest genres of literature.