Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller - Buy or sell works
Born 1793 in Vienna, died 1865 in Hinterbrühl near Mödling
Waldmüller is considered one of the most significant Austrian painters of the Biedermeier era. Near-natural portrayal of daylight and sunlight is considered his trademark.
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller left his parental home at the tender age of 14, and studied at the Vienna Academy under Hubert Maurer and Johann Baptist Lampi. While at the Academy, he used personal contacts as a means of self education. Waldmüller earned his livelihood by selling miniature portraits, and from 1811 onward as a drawing tutor in the home of Count Gyulay in Agram (Zagreb).
It was there that he met his first wife, the court opera singer Katharina Weidner, whom he then accompanied to her theatre engagements in Baden near Vienna, Brünn and Prague, where he earned his keep as a decorator. They returned to Vienna in 1817.
Waldmüller turned to portrait painting above all, receiving numerous commissions from aristocratic circles. He continued to devote himself to other styles, perfecting his skills of realistic portrayal. Waldmüller undertook study trips to Italy and Paris, and regularly sojourned in the Salzkammergut region to complete nature studies. He was appointed curator of the painting collection at the Vienna Academy in 1830, where he taught as a professor.
Waldmüller’s golden age of portrait art was in the 1830s. He later devoted himself increasingly to genre and landscape portraits. Waldmüller enjoyed international success with an 1856 exhibition in Buckingham Palace in London.
Waldmüller became increasingly embroiled in conflict with the Vienna Academy and ultimately was forced into retirement with half his former salary in 1857. He had already lost his Academy studio in 1850. He was forced to auction all his paintings due to financial difficulties and to exhibit in the fashion salon run by his second wife, Anna Bayer.
He was ultimately rehabilitated by Franz Joseph I of Austria, and his salary restored.
Important students of Waldmüller include Anton Romako, Hans Canon, Michael Zichy, Anton Ebert and Adam Brenner.