Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (; 15 January 1793 – 23 August 1865) was an Austrian painter. Waldmüller was one of the most important Austrian painters of the Biedermeier period.

Career

In 1807, Waldmüller attended the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He lived in Pressburg, Hungary and, in 1811, he worked as a teacher of arts for the children of Count Gyulay in Croatia. He returned to the Academy of Vienna and studied portrait painting. In 1814 he married the singer Katharina Weidner, and subsequently went on tour with her, working as a set designer.

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller was one of the most important Austrian painters of the Biedermeier period. Whether it was the conquest of the landscape and thus the convincing rendering of closeness or distance, the accurate characterisation of the human face, the detailed and refined description of textures, or the depiction of rural everyday life: his works – brilliant, explanatory, moralising, and socially critical – influenced a whole generation of artists. Being an advocate of natural observation and plein air painting, as well as a critic of academic painting, Waldmüller was far ahead of his time. Under the Nazis, 1933–1945, many artworks by Waldmüller were seized from Jewish collectors and several were channeled to Hitler's planned Führermuseum in Linz.

Claims for restitution of looted Wadlmüller artworks include(d):

Children on Their Way Home from School was stolen from Amalie Redlich in Nazi Austria. Little Count Esterhazy was looted from the Bloch-Bauer collection. Bildnis der Familie Gierster was stolen from Franz and Melania Popper. Wiedergenesene was taken from Hermann Eissler. Irma and Oscar Lowenstein for three Walmüllers seized under the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws for Hitler's planned Linz museum: The Good-Natured Child; Preparing the Celebration of the Wine Harvest, and The Grandparents’ Visit.

Gallery