In 2010, a Kaliningrad artist Sergey Arishchenko made a number of sculptures inspired by the works and drawings of the German writer, artist and musician Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. This sculpture, along with the others, was cast in bronze.
Sergey Arishchenko’s work is an author’s depiction of one of Ernst Hoffmann’s caricatures. A grotesque chimera with a lion’s head and animal forelegs, peacock feathers on the sides of the serpentine torso is ridden by a pudgy male figure. The man is wearing a helmet with a high plume on his head, his left hand holds a goblet, his right hand is clenched into a fist.
It is known that Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann illustrated his own works. The writer was interested not only in music and literature, but also in painting, especially landscape painting. His colorful and picturesque descriptions showed the beauty of nature.
The ability to subtly notice all the shortcomings and vices of society, the vividness with which Hoffmann portrayed the reality around him, were manifested in the visual arts. As a young man, Ernst Hoffmann learned painting and drawing at the lessons of the artist Johann Gottlieb Zeman. Later, he used his drawing skills to reveal the hypocrisy and sanctimony of the local society. German critics did not think highly of Hoffmann, they preferred deep and serious romanticism, devoid of a dash of sarcasm and satire, which the author appealed to.
The German writer used the pencil as a sharp weapon against banality, vulgarity, hypocrisy and routine. His comic sketches that he made during court hearings, in a literary salon, in a restaurant where he spent time with friends have been preserved. He accompanied his letters and diary pages with self-portraits, showing his person in an ironic light.
In 1807, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was working
as a lawyer in Warsaw; at that time, these territories were taken over by
Napoleon’s troops. The German author lost his job and began to draw caricatures
of Napoleon Bonaparte, but the money he received for his art was barely enough
to provide his family with basic necessities.
