GESSNER

gessner, solomon (1730-1788), swiss painter and poet, was born at zurich on the 1st of april 1730. with the exception of some time (1749-1750) spent in berlin and hamburg, where he came under the influence of ramler and hagedorn, he passed the whole of his life in his native town, where he carried on the business of a bookseller. he died on the 2nd of march 1788. the first of his writings that attracted attention was his _lied eines schweizers an sein bewaffnetes madchen_ (1751). then followed _daphnis_ (1754), _idyllen_ (1756 and 1772), _inkel and yariko_ (1756), a version of a story borrowed from the _spectator_ (no. 11, 13th of march 1711) and already worked out by gellert and bodmer, and _der tod abels_ (1758), a sort of idyllic pastoral. it is somewhat difficult for us now to understand the reason of gessner's universal popularity, unless it was the taste of the period for the conventional pastoral. his writings are marked by sweetness and melody, qualities which were warmly appreciated by lessing, herder and goethe. as a painter gessner represented the conventional classical landscape. collected editions of gessner's works were repeatedly published (2 vols. 1777-1778, finally 2 vols. 1841, both at zurich). they were translated into french (3 vols., paris, 1786-1793), and versions of the _idyllen_ appeared in english, dutch, portuguese, spanish, swedish and bohemian. gessner's life was written by hottinger (zurich, 1796), and by h. wolfflin (frauenfeld, 1889); see also his _briefwechsel mit seinem sohn_ (bern and zurich, 1801).