Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer was a German painter born on the 21st of May, 1471. He is a renowned painter and printmaker but died on the 6th of April, 1528 at the age of 56. Dürer became famous when he was in his mid-twenties and because of this, his life has been well documented by several sources.

After a few years at school, Dürer started learn a bit about goldsmithing and a bit of drawing from his father. He showed such a talent for drawing that although is father wanted him to continue goldsmithing, he let him become a apprentice to Michael Wolgemut at the age of fifteen. Wolgemut was a leading artist at that time in Nuremberg and owned a large workshop that produced many different types of art. The one in particular was woodcuts for books.

The great artist of the Renaissance looked as if he painted in watercolours and oils but engraving was the thing he was most famous for. A particular favourite of some is a watercolour painting called A Young Hare. Although the idea of a hare bores some people Dürer has added great detail to this work to make it a boring hare look like a piece of artwork.

With a lot of his works in great detail, he did not get to finish some. When he died he left a career that many would have loved to have. Although the person is gone, his spirit still lives in some of his paintings.



A Young Hare