Oeser, Frederic

, professor of painting, and director of the electoral academy of painting at Leipsic, was born at Presburgh in Hungary, in 1717. He became a student in the academy of painting at Vienna, and his “Sacrifice of Abraham” won the first prize, when he was in his eighteenth year. He learnt modelling of Raphael Donner, the sculptor. In 1739 he went to Dresden, and acquired some celebrity by his historic pictures. When the academy at Leipsic was founded by the elector Christian, Oeser was appointed director; and his best works are in St. Nicholas church in that city, where he died March 18, 1799. | Fuseli is of opinion that, had he seen Italy, studied tfoe antique with greater assiduity, and submitted less to the dastard taste of his age, he probably would have more than rivalled Mengs, whom he excelled in invention and fire. Winkleman, with whom he became acquainted at Dresden, appears to have been indebted to him for the formation of his taste. Oeser has etched some of his own compositions in a free and picturesque manner. ¹