Johann Michael Voltz

Voltz's depiction of the 1819 anti-Jewish Hep-Hep riots in Frankfurt is used by historians researching on the social background of the rioters (both peasant women and a man wearing spectacles, tails, and a six-button waistcoat are shown assaulting Jews)

Johann Michael Voltz (October 16, 1784 in Nördlingen – 17 April 1858 in Nördlingen) was a German painter, graphic artist and political cartoonist.

Biography

Voltz's father was a schoolteacher. Voltz studied with the engraver and art dealer Friedrich Weber in Augsburg. His drawings and graphic prints brought him to the attention of the court painter Schmidt.

After completing his education he was employed by the academic bookstore Herzberg in Augsburg, where he created popular prints. After staying at Munich in 1808, Voltz joined in 1809 the business of picture book publisher Friedrich Campe in Nuremberg, for which he worked until his death.

In total, Voltz 'oeuvre includes about 5000 drawings and etchings, which he created for Campe and other art publishers (Augsburg: F. Ebner, Herzberg, Jenisch & Stage, trolleys, William, Zauna; Nuremberg: Abel-Klinger, Raspe, Renner, Schrag, etc. ).

Voltz focused on illustrations of battles and other historical events. He depicted events of his own time - the Napoleonic Wars since 1805, the German War of Liberation against Napoleon, and later the Greek War of Independence, as well as from earlier history such as "Luther at the Diet of Worms". In 1828 he made a series of drawings on Children's games (see linked Wikimedia Commons page).

Voltz was also known as a prominent German political cartoonists of the early 19th Century. His cartoons, directed against Napoleon Bonaparte, are still reproduced in present-day history books. His depiction of the 1819 antisemitic Hep-Hep riots in Frankfurt is often reproduced in articles and books about these riots and about antisemitism in general.

Voltz was the father of the animal and landscape painter Friedrich Voltz and the painter Prof. Ludwig Gustav Voltz (1825–1911).