German classicist painter Anselm Feuerbach (1829–1880) portraits of women #painting#
Anselm Feuerbach was a German painter. He was the leading classicist painter of the 19th century school in Germany.
Feuerbach was born in Speye, the son of archaeologist Joseph Anselm Feuerbach and grandson of the legal scholar Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach. The house where he was born is now a small museum.
Between 1845 and 1848 he studied at the Düsseldorf Academy, where he was taught by Johann Wilhelm Schilmer, Wilhelm von Schadow and Karl Thorne. He continued his studies at the Munich Academy, but in 1850 he moved with a number of other dissatisfied students to the Academy in Antwerp, where he studied under Gustav Vappers. Feuerbach moved to Paris in 1851, where he was a student of Thomas Couterte until 1854. It was in Paris that he created his first masterpiece, Hafez by the Fountain (1852).
In 1854, with the patronage of Archduke Friedrich of Baden, he visited Venice, where he was influenced by the greatest school of color, and some of his works show a close study of the Italian masters. From there, he continued to Florence and then to Rome. He stayed in Rome until 1873, briefly returning to Germany. In 1861, he met Anna Rissi (known as "Nanna"), who worked as his model for the next four years. In 1866, she was succeeded as his main model by Lucia Brunacci, the wife of a hotelier, posing for his Medea photographs. In 1862, Feuerbach met Count Adolf Friedrich von Schach, who commissioned him to copy Italian ancient art. The count introduced him to Arnold Berkelin and Hans von Marais. The three artists were known as Deutschrömer ("German Romans") because they preferred Italian art more than Germany.
Between 1869 and 1874, he painted two versions of Plato's Colloquium.
In 1873, Feuerbach moved to Vienna and was appointed professor of historical painting at the Academy. Among his students were Ludwig Deutsch, Rudolf Ernst and Jean Discart. Later, Feuerbach had a disagreement with the architect Theophil Hansen over the ceiling fresco The Fall of the Titans, which was painted for the lobby of the new College Building on Ring Avenue. While in Vienna, he met Johannes-Brahms. Brahms later dedicated a piece to Feuerbach, Nänie.
