Franz Seraph Stirnbrand

Franz Seraph Stirnbrand ( – 2 August 1882, Stuttgart) was a German portrait painter. Of unknown parentage, he was given the name "Stirnbrand" (brow burn) when he was baptized, in recognition of a scar on his forehead; the result of a childhood accident.

Early life Found abandoned in a ditch, he was presumed to be the illegitimate son of a Croatian soldier from a unit stationed nearby, and was raised as a foster child by a local tax official named Johann Baptist Röser. His first art lessons came from Philipp Friedrich von Hetsch, who was resting in Enns at the home of one of Rösers relatives, on the way back to Germany from Italy. In 1805, he was apprenticed to a decorative house painter in Linz, where he was able to take drawing lessons on Sundays. He was offered a place at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, but couldn't accept for lack of adequate financial support.

Personal life In 1830, he built his own home and hosted salons with many notable guests from the fields of art, music and theater such as Nikolaus Lenau, Franz von Dingelstedt and Friedrich Wilhelm Hackländer.

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