Johann Friedrich Voltz (31 October 1817,

Nördlingen Nördlingen (; Swabian: ''Nearle'' or ''Nearleng'') is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately east of Stuttgart, and northwest of Munich. It was bui ...

- 25 June 1886,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

) was a German landscape and animal painter of the

Munich School Munich School ( el, Σχολή του Μονάχου) is the name given to a group of painters who worked in Munich or were trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Munich (german: Münchner Akademie der Bildenden Künste) between 1850 and 19 ...

Life

Voltz received his first art instruction from his father,

Johann Michael Voltz Johann Michael Voltz (16 October 1784 in Nördlingen – 17 April 1858 in Nördlingen) was a German painter, graphic artist and political cartoonist. Biography His father was a schoolteacher. He studied with the engraver and art dealer Fr ...

, a painter and engraver. He began as an etcher and, in 1834, went to Munich to study at the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute o ...

. However, he derived more inspiration from nature and his studies of the old

Dutch Masters Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republ ...

at the

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pinak ...

. He was heavily influenced by

Albrecht Adam Albrecht Adam (16 April 1786 – 28 August 1862) was a Bavarian painter, who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte during the 1812 Russian campaign. He was attached as an official artist to the Bavarian contingent in Bonaparte's Grande Armée. Thr ...

and his friends,

Carl Spitzweg Carl Spitzweg (February 5, 1808 – September 23, 1885) was a German romanticist painter, especially of genre subjects. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era. Life and career Spitzweg was born in U ...

and Eduard Schleich. Sometimes, he would paint the cows in Schleich's landscapes. He found employment as a lithographer but continued to paint Bavarian landscapes through the 1830s. While visiting the Netherlands in 1841, he saw ''Der Junge Stier'', a painting by

Paulus Potter Paulus Potter (; 20 November 1625 (baptised) – 17 January 1654 (buried)) was a Dutch painter who specialized in animals within landscapes, usually with a low vantage point. Before Potter died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 he succeeded in p ...

and, from there on, devoted himself primarily to animal painting. During a tour of Belgium and the Netherlands in 1846, he absorbed the style of the Dutch Stimmungsmalern ("mood painters"). He experimented with lighting, producing warm golden colors and cool silvery tones. In his later paintings, the animals are virtually treated as

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, boo ...

s, with the dramatic effects created by the play of light. He died rather unexpectedly when an apparently innocuous foot ailment turned into a serious illness. Voltz is considered one of the great German animal painters along with

Anton Braith 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 Life Braith was born in Biberach an der Riß. His father was a day-laborer who later beca ...

. His paintings are on display in the

Neue Pinakothek The Neue Pinakothek (, ''New Pinacotheca'') is an art museum in Munich, Germany. Its focus is European Art of the 18th and 19th centuries, and it is one of the most important museums of art of the nineteenth century in the world. Together with th ...

and the

National Gallery (Berlin) The National Gallery (german: Nationalgalerie) in Berlin, Germany, is a museum for art of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. It is part of the Berlin State Museums. From the Alte Nationalgalerie, which was built for it and opened in 1876, its exh ...

, among many others. His younger brother, Ludwig Gustav, was also an animal painter.

References

External links

*
Life and Work of Johann Friedrich Voltz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voltz, Friedrich 1817 births 1886 deaths German artists People from Nördlingen

Life

See also

References

External links