Joseph Petzl (23 December 1803, in

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 ...

– 23 April 1871, in Munich) was a German

genre painter Genre painting (or petit genre) is the painting of genre art, which depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity ca ...

of the

Biedermeier The Biedermeier period was an era in Central European art and culture between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle classes grew in number and artists began producing works appealing to their sensibilities. The period began with the end of th ...

school. He has left a collection of drawings documenting his everyday life, love affairs and travels, now in the Münchner Stadtmuseum.

Life

From May 1821 he studied at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, 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, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...

under Robert Langer. In 1828 he left the academy and began to travel widely, initially going to the "Dürerfest" celebrating

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

. He stayed a year in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, studying under Carl Begas, then from November 1829 lived in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, where he became friends with the Norwegian landscape painter

Thomas Fearnley Thomas Fearnley (, 27 December 1802 – 16 January 1842) was a Norwegian romantic painter, a pupil of Johan Christian Dahl and a leading representative of Norwegian romantic nationalism in painting. His son Thomas Fearnley (1841–1927) founde ...

and the Danish-German genre painter

Friedrich Bernhard Westphal Friedrich Bernhard Westphal (5 October 1803, Schleswig (city), Schleswig – 24 December 1844) was a German-Danish genre painting, genre painter and illustrator. He was also known by his nickname Fritz Westphal. Life From 1821 to 1826 he stu ...

. In November 1830 he and Westphal travelled to the latter's birthplace of

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

, and in July the following year Petzl travelled to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. He called at

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, Schleswig again and

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, finally arriving back in Munich in September 1831. There he renewed his friendship with Fearnley, who had arrived in Munich a year earlier. In September 1832 Petzl, Fearnley and the Danish genre painter Vilhelm Bendz set off for Rome. The journey over the Alps was so exhausting that Bendz died in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

, but Petzl and Fearnley reached Rome in November 1832. Petzl only stayed there briefly and joined

Peter von Hess Peter Heinrich Lambert von Hess (29 July 1792 – 4 April 1871) was a German painter, known for historic paintings, especially of the Napoleonic Wars and the Greek War of Independence. Life Peter von Hess initially received training from his fat ...

and a group of other

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n painters on a trip to Naples and Greece, reaching

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

on 30 January 1833, in time to witness celebrations for the arrival of king

Otto of Greece Otto (; ; 1 June 1815 – 26 July 1867) was King of Greece from the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece on 27 May 1832, under the Convention of London, until he was deposed in October 1862. The second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ott ...

. There he taught drawing to the daughters of Otto's minister Joseph Ludwig von Armansperg before travelling in 1834 to

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. In November 1834 Petzl returned to Munich and shifted from his earlier scenes of Alpine and Tyrolese bandits, hunters, freedom fighters and peasant weddings to similar folkloric paintings of scenes in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

Selected works

* ''An Auction'', 1832. 61 x 77 cm. Gemäldegalerie Thurn und Taxis, Regensburg * ''A Greek Wedding'', 1835. 66 x 84 cm. Münchner Stadtmuseum

Bibliography (in German)

* Ulrike Staudinger: "Die "Bildergalerie" Maximilian Karls von Thorn und Taxis, Verlag Michael Lassleben Kallmütz, 1990. * Hans Ottomeyer (ed.): Biedermeiers Glück und Ende. Hugendubel München 1987. * Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Gezeichnete Tagebücher zur Zeit des Biedermeier – Fritz Westphal und Joseph Petzl. Verlag Boyens & Co., Heide 1993. *
Portraits of Petzl at the Bayerische Stadtmuseum
German male painters Painters from Munich 1803 births 1871 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German genre painters Biedermeier painters Artists from the Kingdom of Bavaria {{Germany-painter-stub