Martin Johann Schmidt, called ''Kremser Schmidt'' or ''Kremserschmidt'', (25 September 1718 – 28 June 1801), was one of the outstanding Austrian

painters Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

of the late

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

along with

Franz Anton Maulbertsch Franz Anton Maulbertsch (7 June 1724 – 8 August 1796) was an Austrian painter and engraver, one of the most renowned exponents of Rococo painting in the German and Hungarian regions. Maulbertsch was born in Langenargen and studied in the Aca ...

. He was born at

Grafenwörth Grafenwörth is a municipality in the district of Tulln in the Austrian state of Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are A ...

lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

, a son of the sculptor Johannes Schmidt. A pupil of Gottlieb Starmayr, he spent most of his life at

Stein Stein may refer to: Places Austria * Stein, a neighbourhood of Krems an der Donau, Lower Austria * Stein, Styria, a municipality in the district of Fürstenfeld, Styria * Stein (Lassing), a village in the district of Liezen, Styria * Stein a ...

, where he mostly worked in the numerous churches and monasteries of his Lower Austrian homeland. While the evolution of his style after 1750 shows that he had either spent a formative period in northern Italy or had at least had extensive contact with northern Italian works of art prior to that date, his works are also clearly influenced by

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

(visible above all in his etchings) and the great fresco-painters of the Austrian Baroque,

Paul Troger Paul Troger (30 October 1698 – 20 July 1762) was an Austrian painter, draughtsman, and printmaker of the late Baroque period. Troger's illusionistic ceiling paintings in fresco are notable for their dramatic vitality of movement and their pale ...

and

Daniel Gran Daniel Gran (22 May 1694 in Vienna – 16 April 1757 in Sankt Pölten), was an Austrian painter. His pictures ornament several public buildings in his native city. He was of some consideration in his time and after a century of Italian dom ...

. Despite not having received formal academic training, in 1768 he was made a member of the imperial

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

due to his artistic merits, which by that time had already been recognized by a wider public inside and outside of Austria. Primarily he painted devotional images for private devotion and churches, including a considerable number of large altar paintings. His lively and colourful style made him extremely popular with people from all levels of society already during his lifetime. From 1780, mythological and low-life themes became increasingly frequent, only to be replaced by a renewed concentration on religious topics during the last years of Schmidt's life. He died at Stein/Danube (now belonging to

Krems an der Donau Krems an der Donau (, ) is a city in Lower Austria, Austria. With a population of 24,821, it is the 20th-largest city of Austria and fifth-largest of Lower Austria. It is approximately west of Vienna. Krems is a city with its own statute (or '' ...

), aged 82. He was an important draughtsman and has left numerous

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

s which clearly show Rembrandt's influence. While his earlier works typically show a warm

chiaroscuro In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

, from about 1770 he used increasingly stronger and more lively colours. Simultaneously, both his style and his brush technique became much more free, making him, like Franz Anton Maulbertsch, an important predecessor of

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

. In this aspect, his mature style is completely contrary to

neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

, the style which increasingly dominated European art after about 1780.

External links

* *
Entry on Martin Johann Schmidt in the database of the Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Vienna
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Martin Johann 1718 births 1801 deaths 18th-century Austrian painters 18th-century Austrian male artists Austrian male painters Austrian etchers

Further reading

External links