Victor Müller (29 March 1829 – 21 December 1871 was a German painter.

Biography

Müller was born in the Free City of Frankfurt. Beginning his artistic studies under Steinle at the Frankfurt art school, he continued them at Antwerp and ultimately went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

(1849), where he stayed for 11 years, diligently studying the methods and manner of

Thomas Couture Thomas Couture (21 December 1815 – 30 March 1879) was a French history painter and teacher. He taught such later luminaries of the art world as Édouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, John La Farge,Wilkinson, Burke. ''The Life and Works of A ...

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, and

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and ...

. He became a follower of Courbet, whose technique, the reverse of Couture's, he adopted, and subsequently helped to promote in Germany. In 1858 he returned to Frankfurt, where he soon attracted attention with a series of pictures, thoroughly realistic in conception and of great coloristic charm, but scarcely understood by a public accustomed to the sentimental trend of the

Düsseldorf school Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

of that period. Therefore, he moved to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

in 1866, where revolutionary departures from traditional treatment as the “Sleeping Wood-Nymph” (1863), or “Hero and Leander,” were more likely to be appreciated. For the castle of Kronberg in the Taunus, he painted a series of scenes from the history of Baron Hartmuth von Kronberg. He also produced his famous “Hero und Leander.” Following these works came “Hamlet mit Horatio auf dem Friedhof” (“

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

with Horatio in the Churchyard”), “Ophelia am Bach” (“Ophelia by the brook”), “Romeo und Julia”, and his last and unfinished work, “Faust auf dem Spaziergang” (“

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

on a Stroll”). Among his other works are “Waldnymphe” (“Wood nymph”), “

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im Venusberg”, “Landschaftsszene aus Victor Hugos Les misérables” (“A landscape from

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”). His last finished picture was “Blumenmädchen” (“Flower Girl”). All of his works are distinguished by a certain literary or poetic character which appeals to the fancy like a strain of lyric music, although the coloring sometimes runs in its vividness to the verge of extravagance. He married Ida Scholderer, the sister of Otto Scholderer, in 1868.

Legacy

To his influence as a colorist was due not only the introduction of the tone element into the paintings 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 191 ...

, but also the truer conception of historical characters and a more wholesome observation of nature among the younger generation of artists.

Gallery

File:Jahrhundertausstellung 1906 KatNr. 1222.jpg, ''Romeo and Juliet'' File:Victor Mueller Schneewittchen bei den sieben Zwergen.jpg, ''

Snow White "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

with the Seven Dwarfs''

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Victor 1829 births 1871 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters Artists from Munich Munich School