Oil on panel
Defregger Band II, p. 54 with illu. in colors and p. 105, no. 22411. Signed and dated upper left. 38 x 30,5 cm (14,9 x 12 in)

PROVENANCE: Private collection Italy.

Franz von Defregger was born the second son of the wealthy farmer Michael Defregger at the Ederhof at Stronach in Tyrol in 1835. After his father's death, he sold the family's farm and went to Innsbruck, where he began a carver-apprenticeship under Michael Stolz. Stolz soon recognized his artistic talent and organized a meeting with Karl Theodor von Piloty. On the painter's suggestion Defregger attended the preparatory class at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich under Hermann Dyck and switched to Hermann Anschütz' painter's class at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in autumn 1861. A following study trip led him for a longer period to Paris in 1863. There he got acquainted with the School of Barbizon, which had particular influence on his nature pieces. After returning from Paris, he stayed in Munich and Eastern Tyrol, where mainly portraits of relatives and friends were executed. In 1867 he painted the study ‘Der verwundete Jäger' [The Wounded Hunter], which helped him to be accepted as von Piloty's pupil. Defregger mainly painted scenes from the every-day-life of Tyrolean farmers and genre-like depictions of the latest history, which stood in clear contrast to von Piloty's extensively staged society-paintings. Defregger soon became one of the most popular genre-painters of the ‘Munich School' and had academic influence. In 1878 the artist was appointed professor for history painting at the composing class of the academy in Munich, where he taught until 1910. His prestigious villa in the Königinstraße in Munich, which was built in 1880, soon became one of the high society's meeting points. In the following years Defregger received numerous honors and awards, which culminated in the bestowal of the Bavarian Crown Order, combined with a title of nobility, in 1883. Beside the academic genre and history painting, which was regularly shown at exhibitions, the painter painted during the 1890s several freer portraits, landscapes and images from his private life.

This work also originates from his time at the academy. With its warm and earthen tones, it allows insight into a rural farm idyll.

His numerous intimate sketches and studies, which deliver impressive proof of his mastery in landscape coloring as well as of his power of observation, were always in the shade of his famous genre pieces. Franz von Defregger died in Munich in 1921. [CM].