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Nilson, Johann Esaias
(b Augsburg, bapt 2 Nov 1721; d Augsburg, 11 April 1788). German miniature painter, draughtsman, engraver and print publisher. He was trained in painting miniatures by his parents, Rosina Barbara Nilson (c. 1691–1763) and Andreas Nilson (c. 1690–1751), as well as by Hieronymus Sperling (1695–1777), and in copper engraving by Johann Lorenz Haid. After his father’s death Johann inherited his artist’s rights and founded a printing house in 1751, where he published some 70 series of prints after his own and other people’s designs (e.g. by Johann Evangelist Holzer, Boucher, Johann Elias Ridinger and Georg Philipp Rugendas), engraved by himself and others. He was appointed to the Prussian court in 1752 and received a commission for miniature portraits of the first 12 Brandenburg Electors (Berlin, Kstbib. & Mus.; Munich, Staatl. Graph. Samml.; Augsburg, Maximilianmus.). His marriage to a pastor’s daughter in 1755 aided his ascent from craftsman status: in 1761 he was appointed court painter to Charles Theodore of Sulzbach, the Elector Palatine (reg 1742–99). He became a member of the Kaiserlich-Franziszischen Akademie der Freien Künste in Augsburg in 1766, in 1769 Protestant Director of the Reichsstädtische Kunstakademie and in 1778 President of the Franziszischen Akademie, in effect directing competing institutions.
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