Josef Karl
Styler

Germany • 1781−1858

Biography and information

After studying at Wurzburg and Vienna, studied art in Paris with françois gérard. Three years working in Italy in the courts of eugène Beauharnais and Murat. In 1812 he moved to Munich, where he painted portraits of any customers from the middle class to members of the Royal family. In 1820 he became a court painter of the Bavarian king Ludwig I. the Master of the portrait. His hands belong the portraits of Goethe, Ludwig Teak, Alexander von Humboldt and Beethoven. Besides portraits he painted genre and religious subjects.

The first steps in the art Stieler made under the guidance of his father, who died in 1789. Subsequent years Stieler successfully engaged in self-education in pastel and miniature. In 17 years, Stieler took a trip to würzburg. There it almost two years consisted of students at the court artist of Christophe Vesela, who in turn studied with Anton Raphael Mengs. Have Vesela Stieler studied oil painting. Then Stieler went to study at the Vienna Academy of fine arts, Heinrich Friedrich Fuger and made his debut as a portrait painter.

In 1805-1806 years Stieler held in the courts of Budapest and Warsaw, where they were just swamped with orders. In 1807 he accepted an offer to move to Paris to work with Francois Gerard. In 1808 he returned to Germany and settled as an independent artist in Frankfurt am main.

In 1810 Stieler went on a long trip to Italy. After Rome in 1811 he arrived in Naples, where he painted the portrait of Joachim Murat. Back in Milan, he stayed for a long time at the court of Eugene Beauharnais, to paint portraits of his children for father-in-law Beauharnais king of Bavaria Maximilian I Joseph.

The following year king Maximilian I invited the Stieler to his court in Munich, which was for the Stieler house. In 1816, his patron sent Stieler to the Viennese court to write a portrait of Emperor Franz II. There Stieler married a Russian girl Pauline Bekkers, who bore him five children.

From February to April, 1820, Stieler painted the portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven, which today is apparently the most famous image of the great composer. Beethoven, who considered the meeting with the Stieler punishment, agreed to pose for Stieler only because customers portraits were friends of the composer Franz and Antonia Brentano. However, the composer was out of patience early, and the hands of Beethoven Stieler wrote already in memory. In 1967, Andy Warhol took this painting as a basis for its image of Beethoven.

In 1820, Stieler returned to Munich and was appointed by the king in the court artists. In 1821 the night before the burial Stieler painted the portrait of Caroline, the youngest daughter of Maximilian I.

For king Ludwig I, Stieler wrote the famous Gallery of beauties in Nymphenburg Palace. By order of Ludwig Stieler wrote in 1828, also known portrait of Goethe. In the work of Stieler include portraits of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Ludwig Teak, Alexander von Humboldt and the family of king Maximilian I.

In 1824 Stieler became a co-founder of the Munich art Union. In 1833 he married the poetess Josephine von Miller. They had three children: Ottilie, the future artist Eugen von Stieler and future writer Karl Stieler. The nephew of Stieler and his disciple was Friedrich Durck.

The last years of his life Stieler held in Tegernsee, on the hill where Lieberman he built his summer house on donated in 1829 by the king of the land.