Austrian-born Franz von Defregger came from a family of Tyrolean farmers. Particularly impressive are his atmospheric genre paintings, which show transfigured scenes from the Tyrolean struggle for freedom and the everyday life of the peasants.
Even as a child, Franz von Defregger showed an artistic talent. After the death of his parents, he inherited their farm. Defregger planned to emigrate to America. To do so, he sold his parents' farm and paid off his two sisters. But his plans did not come to fruition. Instead, he ended up in Innsbruck at the trade school and apprenticed with the sculptor Michael Stolz. After attending the preparatory class at the Royal School of Applied Arts in Munich, he passed the entrance exam to the Royal Academy of Art the following year. He enrolled there for painting lessons with the German painter Hermann Anschütz.
During his study trip to Paris, where he studied at the Ècole des Beaux-Arts, he came into contact with the painting of the Barbizon School, which had a particular effect on his nature pieces. Along the way he continued his autodidactic education, among other things in the field of nude drawings.
After his return to Munich, he became an employee of the studio of the history painter Carl Theodor von Piloty. He appropriated the basic coloristic traits of his teacher, but chose other subjects. Defregger quickly found great favor with the Munich public and became one of the most popular genre painters of the Munich school, also on an international level.
He had a prestigious villa built in Munich's Königinstraße according to the plans of the architect Georg von Hauberrisser, which quickly became a social meeting place.
In addition to his genre and history paintings, he was very interested in painting portraits, whose subjects were mostly relatives and acquaintances.
Defregger received many prizes and awards during his career. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown and the Order "Pour le Mérite" for sciences and arts. A few years later, he received the title Ritter von Defregger and was made an honorary citizen of Munich. At the age of 43, King Ludwig II appointed him professor of history painting in the composition class at the Munich Academy, where he taught for over 30 years. Defregger did not succeed in his public works to join the modernism, which made completely new demands on painting. But there are some private sketches and studies, which prove his coloristic abilities in landscape painting and his power of observation in portraiture. Some of his paintings are in the Museum of Local History in Bolzano, because they have great importance for South Tyrol as a representation of the heroic deeds of the freedom fighter Andreas Hofer. Among his students were important artists, including Lovis Corinth, Hans Perathoner and Josef Moroder-Lusenberg. Defregger died at the age of 85 and was buried in the family vault in Munich's North Cemetery. After his death, some streets in Vienna, in Bolzano and Berlin were named after him, but not all of them kept this name in the long run.
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.jpg "Farewell of the Hunters by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Madonna by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "The Last Contingent by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Returning Tyrolean Landsturm in the War of 1809 by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Grace Before Meal by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Tyrolean Home Guard Returning from the War of 1809 by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Andreas Hofer Led to Execution by Franz Defregger")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1125486).jpg "Farmers (Tyrolean Freedom Fighters) by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "To Health by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Young Tyrolean by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Dirndl by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Salon Tyrolean by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Tyrolean Dirndl by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "House Corridor with Staircase by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Backyard with Staircase by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Andreas Hofer at Innsbruck by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "The Zither Player by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "The Zither Player by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Farmhouse Interior by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Zillin by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Andrew Hofer appointed Governor of the Tyrol AD 1809 by Franz Defregger")
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.jpg "Farmstead by Franz Defregger")
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