Anselm Feuerbach

Anselm Feuerbach studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf under Wilhelm Schadow, Carl Ferdinand Sohn, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer and Carl Friedrich Lessing from 1845–1948. Grand Duke Leopold of Baden gave him a small grant. Afterwards, Feuerbach briefly attended the Kunstakademie in Munich and entered the studio of the painter Karl Rahl. In 1850 he studied at the Kunstakademie in Antwerp. In 1851 Feuerbach journeyed to Paris, where he remained until 1854 – apart from some shorter stays in other cities including  Heidelberg. In Paris he was influenced by Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet and Thomas Couture and worked in Couture’s studio for a short period. He spent 1854 in Karlsruhe. Thanks to the grant he received from the Great Duke of Baden Feuerbach went to Italy in 1855. He visited Venice, Padua, Bologna and Florence, studying and copying works by Renaissance painters. From 1856–1973 he lived in Rome where he became friends with the copperplate engraver Julius Allgeyer who later became his biographer. He made the acquaintance of Reinhold Begas, Arnold Böcklin and the art theoretician Konrad Fiedler, among others. He also met Anna Risi, known as Nanna, in 1860. She was his model, muse and for a time his companion. When they went their separate ways he found a new model, Lucia Brunacci. After turning down a professorship at the Kunstschule Weimar in 1861 and at the Kunstschule Karlsruhe in 1869, Feuerbach became professor for history painting at the Kunstakademie in Vienna in 1872. However, he asked to be released from his duties in 1877 for health reasons. He was awarded the Große Goldene Medaille at the art exhibition in Munich in 1876. From 1877 onwards he spent his time in Venice. After his death, his step-mother and benefactor, Henriette Heydenreich, published his autobiographical legacy.