The New International Encyclopædia/Oeser, Adam Friedrich

OESER, ẽ'zẽr, Adam Friedrich (1717-90). A German painter, etcher, and sculptor, born at Pressburg, Hungary. He was a pupil, in Vienna, of Van Schuppen and Daniel Grau at the Academy, where he was awarded the first prize in 1735, and of Raphael Donner in sculpture. In 1739 he went to Dresden, won reputation with portraits, executed mural paintings in Castle Hubertsburg in 1749, and removed to Leipzig in 1759. Appointed director of the newly founded Academy there in 1764, he zealously opposed mannerism in art and was a stout champion of Winckelmann's advocacy of reform on antique lines. Among the numerous pupils he educated was Goethe, with whom he kept up friendly relations afterwards at Weimar. As specimens of Oeser's paintings may be mentioned “The Artist's Children” (1766, Dresden Gallery); “Marriage at Cana” (1777), and four others (Leipzig Museum); and “The Painter's Studio” (Weimar Museum). His best effort in sculpture is the monument of Elector Frederick Augustus (1780) on the Königsplatz in Leipzig. For his biography consult Dürr (Leipzig, 1879).