Biography

German painter who was born in northern Bavaria and trained as a goldsmith before entering the Academy in Munich in about 1820. He was a pupil of Johann Peter von Langer and Peter Cornelius, whom he assisted in painting the frescoes in the Glyptothek in about 1825. For several years he lived and worked in Italy (1828-32) before travelling in Sicily, Greece and Asia Minor. The main influences on his style were the Nazarene painters whom he met in Rome, namely Friedrich Overbeck and Johann Koch, whose daughter he married in 1838. He was essentially a history painter, but later in life he painted a number of altarpieces.