Studie einer Mitra

1848

Leaves Düsseldorf for Munich and Carl Rahl

After general schooling at the Freiburg Lyceum, Feuerbach studies from 1846 (other accounts say 1845) at the Düsseldorf Academy under Schadow, Schirmer and Sohn, but Schadow’s pietistic bent is not to his taste, and in 1848 he moves to Munich. For almost two years he studies there with great profit under Carl Rahl.

1854

Travels to Venice on a stipend from the Grand Duke of Baden

In 1854, funded by Grand Duke Friedrich of Baden, Feuerbach comes to Venice, where he studies the Venetian colourists to improve his own colour: he makes a copy of Titian’s “Assumption of the Virgin” and paints the figure of “Poetry”. He then continues to Florence and on to Rome.

1855

Settles in Rome

From 1855 Feuerbach settles in Rome for a long time and lives there until 1873, making only brief visits back to Germany. The best works of his career are painted in Rome.

1862

Meets Count Adolf Friedrich von Schack

A Munich connoisseur of painting who becomes his friend commissions copies of Italian old masters from him, buys his pictures and does much to make him known. The count introduces Feuerbach to Arnold Böcklin and Hans von Marées; the three, for their preference for Italian over German art, come to be known as the Deutschrömer (“German Romans”).

1873

Moves to Vienna as professor of history painting

In 1873 Feuerbach is appointed professor of history painting at the Vienna Academy and moves to the city; his students include Ludwig Deutsch, Rudolf Ernst and Jean Discart.

4 gennaio 1880

Died