Feuerbach, Anselm (1829-1880)

Feuerbach, Anselm

PAINTER (GERMANY)

BORN 12 Sep 1829, Speyer, Rheinland-Pfalz - DIED 4 Jan 1880, Venezia, Veneto: Hotel Luna
CAUSE OF DEATH stroke
GRAVE LOCATION Nürnberg, Bayern: Sankt-Johannis Friedhof (I, 0715)

Painter of portraits, history scenes and landscapes. He was the grandson of lawyer Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach (1775-1833) and the son of archaeologist Joseph Anselm Feuerbach (1798-1851). His family moved to Freiburg in 1836 and from 1845 tot 1848 he was a pupil of Wilhelm von Schadow, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, Alfred Rethel and Carl Friedrich Lessing at the Dusseldorf Academy. In 1846 he made his first major painting, "Flötender Silen". In 1848 he moved to Munich where he copied the old masters at the Pinakothek and worked in the studio of Karl Rahl. In 1850 he studied with the history painter Gustaaf Wappers at Antwerp and from 1851 until 1855 he stayed several times in Paris and entered the studio of Thomas Couture. He moved on to Italty and settled at Rome, where he stayed from 1856 tot 1873.

In Italy he was one of the "Deutschrömers" who were looking for the perfect synthesis between humans and culture. His paintings are not as dramatic of those of Böcklin, they tend to be far more calm and cool. In 1860 in Rome he met the model Nanna Risi who became his lover. She was the wife of a shoemaker and left her husband and child for Feuerbach. Feuerbach was very jealous and their liaison ended in 1865 when she left him for a rich man from England. When they met a few years later in Rome she had turned into a beggar and he simply turned away from her.

His future biographer Julius Allgeyer had introduced him in 1862 to Graf Adolf Friedrich von Schack, who supported Feuerbach financially. Feuerbach became a Professor at the Academy in Vienna (1873-1876). After staying in Venice and Nürnberg he died in solitary circumstances, completely neglected by his contemporaries. It was said that the bad reception at the Munich exhibition of 1879 of his "Sturz der Titanen" hastened his death. But he died from a stroke that was possibly caused by syphilis. Feuerbach was buried close to Dürer's grave at the Sankt-Johannis Friedhof, Nürnberg.

Family
• Father: Feuerbach, Joseph Anselm

Related persons
• was a friend of Böcklin, Arnold
• was influenced by Couture, Thomas
• is nephew/niece of Feuerbach, Paul Johann Anselm, Ritter von
• was teacher of Merode, Karl, Freiherr von
• was influenced by Rahl, Carl
• was pupil of Rethel, Alfred
• was pupil of Schadow-Godenhaus, Wilhelm von
• influenced Stahl, Friedrich

Images
Anselm Feuerbach's tomb at the Sankt-Johannis Friedhof, Nürnberg. Picture by Androom (11 Aug 1998)	The grave of Anselm Feuerbach at the Johannisfriedhof, Nürnberg. Picture by Androom (28 Feb 2009)	The grave of Anselm Feuerbach at the Johannisfriedhof, Nürnberg. Picture by Androom (28 Feb 2009)
"Hafis vor der Schenke". (1852, Mannheim: Kunsthalle)	"Dante und die edlen Frauen von Ravenna" (detail). (1858, Karlsruhe: Staatliche Kunsthalle)	"Maria mit dem Kind zwischen musizierenden Engeln". (1860, Dresden: Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister)
"Nanna". (1861, München: Neue Pinakothek)	"Bildnis einer Römerin (Nanna)". (1862, München: Schack-Galerie)	"Iphigenie". (1862, Darmstadt: Hessisches Landesmuseum)
"Paolo und Francesca". (1864, München: Schack-Galerie)	'Bianca Capello'. (1864/1868, Hamburg: Kunsthalle)	"Mandolinenspielerin". (1865, Hamburg: Kunsthalle)
"Das Gastmahl des Plato". (1869, Karlsruhe: Staatliche Kunsthalle)	"Das Urteil des Paris" ("The Judgement of Paris"). (1870, Hamburg: Kunsthalle)	"Iphigenia". (1870, Winterthur: Oskar Reinhart Foundation)
"Medea". (1870, München: Neue Pinakothek)	"Ruhende Nymphe". (1870, Nürnberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum)	"Medea mit dem Dolche". (1871, Mannheim: Kunsthalle)
"Selbstbildnis". (1873, Berlin: Nationalgalerie)	"Am Meer". (1875, Düsseldorf: Museum Kunstpalast)	"Selbsatbildnis". (1878, Hannover: Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum)