Biography

Austrian painter. His father, Johann Daffinger (d. 1796), was a painter at the Kaiserliche Porzellanmanufaktur in Vienna and, at the age of 11, Daffinger was apprenticed there to his stepfather Philipp Krug and to Michael Weixlbaum. Daffinger studied and worked at the factory until 1812, also attending classes at the Akademie in Vienna under Hubert Maurer (1738-1818) and Heinrich Füger.

Initially Daffinger worked as a painter of miniatures, for example in portraits of French officers during the occupation of Vienna in 1809. At the time of the Vienna Congress, 1814-15, he worked as a portrait painter along with celebrated artists such as Füger and Jean-Baptiste Isabey. Sir Thomas Lawrence's stay in Vienna in 1818-19 brought a new stimulus to Daffinger's work, as it did for other artists: his colours became warmer in tone and they were applied in broader strokes and more decoratively.

Daffinger drew his inspiration primarily from Thomas Lawrence. He owned several mezzotint engravings of the Englishman's works and he took over important compositional elements from Lawrence, who was acclaimed throughout Europe. After 1820, by drawing on this training and inspiration, Daffinger became the most fashionable portraitist of Viennese society. For the guestbook of Princess Melanie Metternich (1805-1854), the artist executed 65 miniature paintings. After 1841, Daffinger, who counted Franz Grillparzer among his friends, turned to flower painting.