How you can use this image
This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).
Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.
The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
Notes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
Jacob Christian Schäffer was an eminent eighteenth-century clergyman, naturalist and scholar. He was born in Querfurt near Halle in Germany on 30th May 1718. He studied at the French School of Latin in Halle and as a student of theology at the University of Halle. In 1738 he became a private tutor in Regensburg, becoming a pastor of an evangelical church in 1741 and superintendent in 1779. He was awarded a doctorate in philosophy in 1760 from the University of Wittenberg and a doctorate of theology in 1762 from the University of Tübingen. Although he had no formal scientific training he embraced many areas of study and his scientific output was prodigious. He was associated with numerous scientific societies in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and was elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1764.
From 1762 to 1764, he published four richly illustrated volumes on mycology ‘Fungorum qui in Bavaria et Palatinatu circa Ratisbonam Nascuntur icones’. The accurate diagrams which portrayed the fungi’s size shape and colour provided essential information for the correct identification of specimens and this comprehensive book was considered a standard text well into the nineteenth century.
Between 1766 and 1779 he published ‘Icones insectorum circa ratisbonam indigenorum coloribus naturam referentibus expressae’ in three volumes which included 280 hand-coloured plates of copper engravings, illustrating approximately 3,000 insects.
The Bowes Museum
Barnard Castle
Title
Jacob Christian Schäffer (1718–1790)
Date
18th C
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 87 x W 68 cm
Accession number
O.227
Acquisition method
bequeathed by the Founders, 1885
Work type
Painting