Hermann Eduard Hartmann (Estonian, 1817-1880)
Hermann Eduard Hartmann was an Estonian painter and graphic artist of Baltic German origin.
He studied at the Tartu Governorate Gymnasium from 1827 to 1835. He began his art studies with August Matthias Hagen and continued in Düsseldorf and Munich from 1836 to 1840.
Hartmann worked as a teacher at the Bērzaine Grammar School in Latvia from 1841 to 1844. From 1845 he worked in Tartu as a drawing teacher and also as an accountant for the city treasury.
In 1845, he received the title of freelance artist from the St Petersburg Academy of Arts. Worked from 1860 as a conservator of the collections of the Learned Estonian Society (at the same time compiling the catalogue 'Das vaterländische Museum zu Dorpat', 1871).
His wood engravings appeared in both Estonian (Tallorahwa Postimees) and German-language newspapers (Inland) and in several calendars ('Tarto Kalender', 'Eesti-Ma Rahwa Kalender' and 'Dörptsche Kalender').
As a curiosity, the Tallorahwa Postimees published Hartmann's woodcarvings, based on sketches of Tartu students of the time of Kristjan Jaak Peterson, which were supposed to depict the departure of students from Innsbruck in Tyrol for the Italian war in 1859. Each picture was accompanied by humorous texts. These troll engravings are considered to be Estonia's first caricatures.