Franz von Defregger

Franz von Defregger was born on April 30, 1835 at the Ederhof in Stronach in Tyrol. The artist, who comes from a rural milieu and only devoted himself to art at the age of 25, after he had sold the inherited father's farm and his plans to emigrate to America had been shattered. At the Innsbruck School of Applied Arts, he started his training to become a sculptor with Michael Stolz in 1860. One year later, he switched to a painting class at the Munich Academy. However, due to his limited previous knowledge, he was denied admission to a master class. Unhappy with the education he received, he went to Paris in 1863, where he continued his self-taught training with great diligence. In 1867 he got his long awaited university place under Karl Piloty in Munich, where he worked alongside Hans Makart until 1870. He soon achieved great success with his paintings, which made Piloty's realistic, historical painting genre-like. However, he had above all success with his portraits. He became one of the best-known Munich painters of the time and, together with Wilhelm Leibl, the most outstanding portraitist of the 19th century in the Bavarian-Austrian region. In the historical paintings, Defregger thematically shows a preference for Tyrolean history, especially for scenes depicting rural life and the Tyrolean struggles for freedom in 1809. Due to the protracted, severe and painful illness caused by rheumatoid arthritis, which sometimes only allowed him to lie while painting, he returned to southern Bolzano from 1871 to 1874. Defregger held the professorship at the Munich Academy in 1878 until 1910, and in 1883 he was finally elevated to the nobility. Defregger died in Munich on January 2, 1921.