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 ...

- 25 June 1886,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) was a German landscape and animal painter of the Munich School.

Life

Voltz received his first art instruction from his father, Johann Michael Voltz, a painter and engraver. He began as an etcher and, in 1834, went to Munich to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. However, he derived more inspiration from nature and his studies of the old Dutch Masters 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) Pin ...

. He was heavily influenced by Albrecht Adam and his friends, Carl Spitzweg 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 Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid sur ...

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 (: 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 human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...

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. 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 t ...

and the

National Gallery (Berlin) The National Gallery () 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 exhibition space has expand ...

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

References

External links

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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