Joseph Reinhart (artist)

Joseph Reinhart (also called Josef Alois Alfons Reinert or Joseph Reinhard; 23 January 1749 – 28 May 1824) was a Swiss artist and costume designer.

Portrait of Joseph Reinhart by an unknown artist (Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek Luzern)

He was born in Lucerne. He was the son of Joseph Ignaz Reinerts and Anna Maria Bättig. In 1765 he received a scholarship from the Lucerne government to study with an unknown artist in Lucca and in Rome, where he spent two years at the Accademia di San Luca in the circle of Pompeo Batoni and Domenico Corvi. On 19 February 1776 he married Anna Schriber, and on 1 January 1777 his daughter Clara was born, who later helped in his workshop as a draftsman.

Reinhart painted many pictures depicting traditional costumes on behalf of the silk ribbon manufacturer Johann Rudolf Meyer. He gained fame primarily through his pictures of costume from all over Switzerland, particularly from the Canton of Basel-Landschaft.[1]

The art historian Sabine Rewald has described Reinhart's style as "combin[ing] archaizing mannerisms with close, candid observation and considerable economy of means".[2] Reinhart's work was a significant influence on the 20th-century painter Balthus, who changed his style after discovering and copying several of Reinhart's paintings in the Historisches Museum Bern in 1932.[3]