Biography

Danish draughtsman, engraver, woodcut designer, painter, architect, surveyor and author. Facts about his highly productive career, which ranged from Denmark to Turkey, come primarily from an autobiographical letter of 1 January 1563 to King Frederick II of Denmark to whom he owed allegiance by birth; also from inscribed works, his letters and mostly unpublished material in archives in Vienna, Hamburg, Antwerp and Copenhagen.

From an early age, he exhibited considerable artistic abilities. King Christian III offered to finance Lorck's education abroad, on the condition that he later served as court artist. Lorck visited the chief artistic centres in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, but when the money ran out, he did not return to his benefactor as he had promised. Instead he made his living at minor princely courts, until he was employed in Vienna in 1555 by Ferdinand I, the future Holy Roman Emperor.

Ferdinand ordered Lorck to accompany a diplomatic mission to Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey. The goal was to negotiate peace with the Ottoman Empire. Lorck's role was to record the Ottoman's way of life to improve Western knowledge of the culture of Turkey.

When Lorck returned to Vienna in 1559, his sketches from the journey were worked up in 128 woodcuts in all, which are known today under the title of The Turkish Publication. This apparently restless artist never achieved a final completion of the work, however. He never realised the projected publication himself. Instead, Lorck returned to Denmark in 1580, where the new king, Frederik II, restored him to favour and gave him work. But just two years later, the aging Lorck travelled off again, leaving few traces of his later movements. His final works are, surprisingly enough, motifs from the Gold Coast in West Africa. The Turkish Publication was first printed in 1626.