Bildnis des Metzgers und Kunsthändlers Heinrich Cramer

The portrait of Heinrich Cramer (1812–1871), painted by David Sulzer, shows a Zurich citizen with many commitments. Cramer was a butcher and art dealer, as well as a talented folk poet. He became particularly well known for his organisational work for the Sechseläuten processions, which he helped to organise from 1839 to 1870. These processions, a central part of Zurich guild life, were characterised by Cramer's contribution for decades (see Markus Brühlmeier/Beat Frei: Das Zürcher Zunftwesen, Vol. II, 2005). David Sulzer (1785–1858), who created the portrait, was a portrait painter and drawing teacher from Zurich. Sulzer is known for his realistic depictions, which often show personalities from cultural and political life. With works such as the portraits of Heinrich Cramer and Johann Martin Usteri, he documented the society of his time and at the same time created testimonies to the bourgeois self-image of the 19th century. The portrait of Cramer reflects his bourgeois status and wide-ranging interests and at the same time shows the influence of art in Zurich's urban life during the 19th century. Source