Matthias Oesterreich
German, 1716–1778
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Matthias Oesterreich was a German painter and engraver who worked as gallery director in Sanssouci under King Frederick II of Prussia.
Matthias Oesterreich was most likely born in Hamburg in 1716. He came to Dresden at a young age, where he learned drawing from Giovanni Battista Grone. He remained in Dresden from 1741 to 1757. In 1751, he became an employee of the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) and in 1755, assistant inspector of the Dresden Gemäldegalerie (Picture Gallery). He acquired his knowledge of art, painters, paintings, and other art movements on various trips to Italy. Due to his expertise, he was also commissioned by private collectors to compile collection catalogs, such as those of the merchant Eimken in 1761 and the private collection of H. J. H. Stein in 1763.
In 1757, with the permission of the Saxon Elector, Oesterreich moved to Potsdam and became director of the gallery in Sanssouci, where he died in Berlin in 1778. In this position, he also published a description of the gallery and the copperplate cabinet of Frederick II in Sanssouci, which appeared in a second edition in 1770 and in French translation in 1773.
Oesterreich also made a name for himself as an engraver with various prints, “some of which are rare.” His engravings of caricatures by Pietro Leone Ghezzi and a series of prints from the collection of Count Brühl are reliably attested.