Moritz Retzsch

 ( 1779 Births ) 

Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch (December 9, 1779 – June 11, 1857) was a German Painting, drawing, and etcher.

Retzsch was born in the Saxony capital Dresden. He joined the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in 1798 under Cajetan Toscani and Józef Grassi, later working autodidactically, copying the famous pictures of the Gemäldegalerie, among them a copy of the Sixtinian Madonna. He was made a member of the Academy in 1817 and professor in 1824.

The Cotta publishing house commissioned illustrations for Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust (26 plates), which made him financially independent. Goethe liked his work, and he illustrated works by other famous authors, most notably Friedrich Schiller's Lied von der Glocke (43 plates), a Shakespeare Gallery (80 plates), and Bürger's Ballads (15 plates). He also did oil paintings on classics subjects, and portraits. Many of his works were created in a house in the Lößnitz, with a view of the Elbe Valley.

As a , he was a member of the Saxon wine association from 1799 onwards. Retzsch died in Oberlössnitz/Radebeul.

• Das Winzerfest der Weinbaugesellschaft im Königreich Sachsen am 25.10.1840, Meinhold & Söhne, Dresden
• Neidhardt, H.J., Die Malerei der Romantik in Dresden, Seemann Verlag. Leipzig, 1976
• H. Heine, Die Harzreise, Ph. Reclam jun. Verlag Leipzig, 16th edn., 1961, p. 48
• Bäumel, J., Vom landesherrlichen Bacchus-Triumph zum Aufzug der "Hofewintzer", in: 600 Jahre Hoflößnitz, historische Weingutsanlage, S.125-139, M. Sandstein Verl. Dresden, 2001; Vogel, G.H., Vivat Bacchus, Bacchus lebe ..., pp. 154–162.

• An engraving of a painting by Retzsch made for The Literary Souvenir, 1825 with illustrative verse by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.