Master of historical portraits Heinrich von Angeli (20 photos)

2 June 2024

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Portraits of the great and famous are a rather specific direction in painting. After all, the master needs to maintain a balance between historical accuracy and the desire to flatter the model, often rich, noble and influential.

Heinrich Anton von Angeli (July 8, 1840, Edenburg (now Sopron, Hungary) - October 21, 1925, Vienna) - an Austrian historical and portrait painter did an excellent job with this. His works include portraits of Queen Victoria, her daughter, Kaiser Wilhelm I, Benjamin Disraeli, and Herbert Kitchener.

Self-portrait

Several paintings are included in the exhibition of the British Royal Collection, as well as the Wallace Collection and the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1915 he received the Pour le Mérite prize for the arts and sciences.

Von Angeli was born in 1840 in Edenburg, then part of the Austrian Empire, now known as Sopron in Hungary. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf and in Munich, and in 1862 he returned to Vienna. Since 1870, he lived in several cities - Berlin, London and Vienna, and painted portraits.

His success in secular portraiture is partly due to the fact that he was able to amazingly accurately reproduce military uniforms, pearls and other important elements of the harmonious image of noble persons. In addition to royalty and politicians, he painted other famous people, such as the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hoffmann.

There were also genre paintings in von Angeli’s work, but only at the beginning of his career. After recognition and gaining public popularity, the artist focused exclusively on portraits. In 1876 he became a professor at the Vienna Academy. And in 1894, one of the city districts was named after the artist.

Heinrich von Angeli died in October 1925. The artist's grave is located in the central cemetery of Vienna.