Anton Braith (2 September 1836 – 3 January 1905) was a German landscape and animal painter. He was also a professor at the

Academy of Fine Arts Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, ...

Life

Braith was born in

Biberach an der Riß Biberach an der Riß ( Swabian: ''Bibra''), often referred to as simply Biberach (), is a town in southern Germany. It is the capital of Biberach district, in the Upper Swabia region of the German state (Land) of Baden-Württemberg. It is calle ...

. His father was a day-laborer who later became a farm manager. As a child, Braith helped herd the cattle. In 1851, he won a scholarship to attend the Royal Art School in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

where he studied under

Bernhard von Neher Karl Josef Bernhard von Neher (16 January 1806, in Biberach an der Riß – 17 January 1886, in Stuttgart) was a German painter. Life and work Neher began to study painting in 1822 in Stuttgart, under Johann Heinrich von Dannecker und Philipp ...

and Heinrich von Rustige. Later, in 1860, he and his classmate

Albert Kappis Albert Kappis (20 August 1836, Wildberg - 18 September 1914, Stuttgart) was a German painter and draughtsperson specializing in landscapes and genre motifs. Biography From 1850 to 1857, Kappis trained as a lithographer in his uncle's work ...

moved to Munich, where they made the acquaintance of

Christian Mali Christian Friedrich Mali (6 October 1832, Darthuizen (near Utrecht) – 1 October 1906, Munich) was a German painter and art professor. His older brother, Johannes Cornelis Jacobus Mali (1828–1865) was also a painter. Life Mali was the youn ...

and became involved in several local "art colonies". In 1867, he travelled to Paris, together with Kappis and Mali. Several exhibitions there, in Vienna and in Munich were very successful. By 1875, Braith was able to buy a villa in Biberach. He undertook his first trip to Italy in 1884 and returned there in 1889. During the

Munich Secession The Munich Secession was an association of visual artists who broke away from the mainstream Munich Artists' Association in 1892, to promote and defend their art in the face of what they considered official paternalism and its conservative polic ...

in 1892, Braith remained loyal to the Academy. He was diagnosed with liver disease in 1903 and, in 1904, went to

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third ...

seeking a cure. Six months before his death, he returned to his home town. As he had never married, he left his estate to the city of Biberach, which used part of his legacy to create a museum. His friend Mali died shortly thereafter and also bequeathed his estate to the city. The two are buried side by side in the Old Catholic Cemetery. The Braith-Mali Museum is now part of an expanded museum complex that also has a large collection of works by

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century ...

Work

Braith was a member of the Munich School and, after the death of Friedrich Voltz, was considered the greatest painter of animals in Germany. His primary subject was livestock, but he occasionally also painted poultry. He was the first to portray animals in large format, studio pictures. His success as a painter is often attributed to a sense of nostalgia induced by Germany's rapidly industrializing culture. His work is divided into four phases: * 1851–1860: Idyllic landscape scenes after the manner of the Dutch. * 1860–1873: Animals in the context of genre scenes (e.g. with shepherds). * 1874–1894: Increasingly dramatic portrayals of animals in dynamic situations. * 1894–1904: Quieter scenes, essentially

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, bo ...

s, of animals on pastures.

Sources

* Adam Kuhn: ''Anton Braith. Ein Bild seines Lebens und Schaffens''. Hrsg. vom Kunst- und Altertums-Verein Biberach. Anzeiger vom Oberland GmbH, Biberach an der Riß 1926 * Hans-Peter Bühler: ''Anton Braith, Christian Mali. Tiermalerei der Münchner Schule''. Von Zabern, Mainz 1981, * ''Die Braith-Mali-Ateliers''. Ausstellungsführer. Braith-Mali-Museum, Biberach an der Riß 2000, * Uwe Degreif (ed.): ''Anton Braith. Tiermaler in München''. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2005,

External links

*
Biberach Tourismus
*

Gerhard Raff Gerhard Raff (born 13 August 1946 in Stuttgart-Degerloch, then American Zone of Occupation, later West Germany) is a German historian, editor and publisher, well known around Swabia (eastern and southern Baden-Württemberg) for his writings on his ...

on Anton Brait

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braith, Anton 1836 births 1905 deaths People from Biberach an der Riss People from the Kingdom of Württemberg Landscape painters 19th-century German painters German male painters Munich School 19th-century German male artists