Daniel Preissler

Daniel Preissler (or Preisler, 8 March 1627 – 19 June 1665) was a German painter, originating from Bohemia.

Biography Preissler was born in Prague. He was the son of the locksmith Georg Preisler and descended from an old renowned family of master glassmakers from Bohemia.

In 1642, he started his apprenticeship with Dresden Court painter Christian Schiebling. He then wandered through Germany and Austria and finally settled down in Nuremberg in 1652. In 1658, he painted the two panels of the great organs of the St. Sebaldus Church in Nuremberg (destroyed by bombings on 2 January 1945), on which he depicted the main musicians, academics and clerics of the city.

In 1660, he painted the Mission of the Holy Spirit for the Heilig-Geist-Spital in Nuremberg. Daniel Preissler left a number of expressive portraits of among others Justina Katharina Kirchmayr (around 1660) as well as a self-portrait playing the lute, together with his wife and three children, dated 1665, the year of his premature death, at 38 years old, in Nuremberg. These works can be seen in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.

Preissler's son, Johann Daniel Preissler, born posthumously, followed in his father's footsteps and became an important painter in Nuremberg, and his five grandchildren were also painters.