Anselm Feuerbach

Anselm Feuerbach was born in 1829 in Speyer, Germany. From 1845 to 1858 he studied at Düsseldorf’s art academy under Wilhelm von Schadow and Carl Friedrich Lessing, and then received further training in Munich, Antwerp and Paris. In 1854 he participated in the Paris World’s Fair and moved to Karlsruhe. The next year he studied Renaissance art in Venice. In 1856 Feuerbach travelled to Rome, where in 1857 he became a member of the Deutscher Künstlerverein, or League of German Artists and made the acquaintance of Arnold Böcklin. Like the other “German Romans”, he devoted himself to the art of antiquity and strove to uphold classical ideals. In 1860 Anna Risi became his primary model, and he lived with her for a few years. Starting in 1865 he repeatedly left Rome for visits to Germany, and in 1872 he was appointed a professor at the Vienna Academy. Feuerbach died in Venice in 1880.