Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Elder

Carl Wilhelm Kolbe (20 November 1757/59, Berlin - 13 January 1835, Dessau) was a German etcher, graphic artist and author.

After graduating, and a brief time in the employ of Count Friedrich Wilhelm von der Schulenburg-Kehnert [de], he went to Dessau in 1780 to teach French at the Philanthropinum.

In 1793, when the Philanthropinum closed, he decided on a career in art and went back to Berlin, where he studied with Chodowiecki, Asmus Carstens and Johann Wilhelm Meil [de].

That same year, he was called by Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau, to establish a new art academy in Dessau, but eh project never materialized.

In addition to his etchings, he produced several books on the subject of "Deutscher Sprachpurismus [de]" (linguistic purity); notably Über den Wortreichthum der deutschen und französischen Sprache und beider Anlage zur Poesie ("About the richness of words of the German and French languages and both of their disposition to poetry", in two volumes, 1809 and 1820).