Villas Winter

text Randi Gaustad

Villas Vinter was Heinrich Gottlieb Köhler's student in the engraver's workshop, and the only one who, alongside the master, executed more complicated works. He started at Nøstetangen in 1754, became a boy under Köhler in 1756 and a journeyman in the mid-1760s, but he never advanced to master. He usually engraved after Köhler's drawings and the style is often a bit stiff and linear, but very accurate. From 1767, it is Vinter that is mentioned in the Nøstetangen archives, when it comes to engraving. Despite his Danish first name, Vinter was presumably Norwegian, possibly from Hokksund or Eiker, because the name Winther occurs there. Sometime in the early 1770s he left Nøstetangen and started working for his former colleague Johann Albrecht Becker at Bragernes in Drammen. He was several times offered a position at Hurdal glass works as sorter master and engraver, but it was probably without result. Villas Vinter died at Bragernes in 1803.