Anselm Feuerbach (1829-1880)

Neue Pinakothek

Born on September 12, 1829 in Speyer and died on January 4, 1880 in Venice. - After his first years at the Academy in Düsseldorf under the tutelage of, among others, Wilhelm von Schadow and Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, Feuerbach moved on to Munich in 1848 to study under Karl Schorn before arriving in Antwerp in 1850 to study with the history painter Gustaaf Wappers. Feuerbach himself considered the work he did in Thomas Coutures atelier in Paris in 1852/53 to be a turning point in his development. In 1855 he travelled via Venice and Florence to Rome where he predominantly stayed until 1872. Despite several regular commissions from Adolf Friedrich Graf von Schack, it was his appointment to the Academy in Vienna in 1873 that brought with it the hoped for recognition. Having become familiar early on with authors of classical antiquity, Feuerbach was to turn repeatedly in his works to literary subject matter. The main theme in his painting was the yearning for the ideal, which Feuerbach found in transfigured antiquity. Together with the artists Arnold Böcklin, Hans von Marées and Adolf von Hildebrand he formed the opposition to established and respected artists the likes of Carl Theodor von Piloty or Hans Makart.