Biography

German architect, who worked in the Romantic Neoclassical style. His father was also an architect, and moved in 1804 to Munich, where young Gärtner received his first education in architecture (1808-12) under Karl von Fischer (1782-1820). After training with Weinbrenner in Karlsruhe (1812-13), he went in 1814 to Paris, where he studied under Percier and Fontaine, before making the obligatory tour of Italy, where he spent four years in the earnest study of antiquities. The fruits of this labour appeared in 1819 in some views accompanied by descriptions of the principal monuments of Sicily (Ansichten der am meisten erhaltenen Monumente Siciliens). His stay in Italy was followed by a visit to The Netherlands and England, where he was fascinated by industrial architecture.

He then settled in Munich and taught at the Academy where he was appointed professor of architecture in 1820. His work as a practical architect began with this appointment. In 1822 Friedrich von Gärtner was appointed artistic director of the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory. Gärtner eventually became head government surveyor of buildings and from 1842 director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

Gärtner and Leo von Klenze were the most distinguished practitioners working in Munich in the first half of 19th century, and influenced later generations. Gärtner's Ludwigskirche in the Ludwigstrasse in Munich strongly influenced other church architecture, especially in North America.

His son Friedrich Gärtner (1824-1905) was a noted architectural painter.