Painter. Largely self-taught, Daniel achieved his first popular success with the sentimental painting The Parting of Jean Calas from His Family (1767), which shows the influence of Greuze. He began engraving in 1758. The bulk of his work was in illustrating scientific books by Basedow, Buffon, Lavater, Pestalozzi and others. He also painted many portraits of Polish gentry and was interested in Huguenot and Polish history as well, making some paintings on the topic. He was in tune with the developing spirit of the age, and many works reflect the cult of sensibility, and then the revolutionary and German nationalist feelings of the end of the century. In printmaking, he is credited with the invention of the deliberate remarque, a small sketch on a plate, lying outside the main image. These were originally little sketches or doodles by artists, not really meant to be seen, but Chodowiecki turned them into “bonus items” for collectors. In 1797 Daniel was appointed director of the Academy of Arts in Berlin, where he died in 1801. (bio by: Shock)