Johann Esper loved art from an early age. His artwork is distributed to the retail market both domestically and internationally. He was producing each print individually with careful controls ensuring accuracy and color fidelity. His beautiful originally hand-colored coral prints are some of the earliest works on corals. He had been consumed with making paintings that evoke viewer’s emotions and seduced by the beauty of color. His coral paintings are the rarest of all the coral works in the world, with only a few known copies in the hands of libraries. To date, there are no other coral works of such completeness with original hand coloring from the 1700s. His paintings seemed to develop their own life and provide direction to him.
As he worked, his paintings generally consisted of many layers of color and texture. His artwork represents an extraordinary opportunity for the collectors of such rarities. The admirers of his work included his contemporary, as well as artists of later centuries and other regions. Each print was on hand made, fine, creamy chain lined paper. Each print was a dynamic portrayal of a species of coral, realistically capturing the plant as it would be in the ocean, with the vibrant original hand coloring enhancing the effect. He preferred to work on smooth surfaces as it lent itself well to the level of detail he aimed to achieve. What inspired him most when coming up with an idea for painting were corals in beautiful backgrounds. He wanted to make his paintings look real to make his viewers feel they have actually seen the corals.
