Gottfried Mind

Gottfried Mind ( born September 25, 1768 in Bern, † November 7, 1814 ) was a Swiss island Gifted and illustrator who specialized in child and animal motifs. Due to its successful cat drawings, he was known as Cat Raphael.

Life

Mind grew up in modest circumstances on, was physically disabled and was considered mentally retarded. He fell forward to as a child by his talent in drawing and carving. To 1775-1780 he lived in Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's educational and correctional institution Neuhof in Birr, where he also was in the visual arts a talent, but neither the letter nor could learn arithmetic. After the closure of the Neuhofs 1780, the family of the Bernese painter Sigmund Freudenberger picked him up, he first worked as Kolorator and illustrator 's studio. After joy Bergers death Mind continued to work in his studio. Mind died at the age of 46 from a lung disease.

Work

Mind drew mainly rural genre scenes with children and pets, especially cats. He pointed to an above-average memory for visual impressions and drew almost never from nature, but from memory. His cat pictures are characterized by anatomical accuracy and his ability to empathize with the domestic life of the animals, which he represented in hunting, playing or sleeping, for example. The French painter Élisabeth Vigée -Lebrun coined the nickname Cat Raphael for him.