The Bavarian painter Franz Lenbach is also called "the Munich painter prince" by art historians. This name is no accident, as Lenbach's lifestyle was upscale and luxurious. Franz Lenbach, who came from a family of bricklayers with many children, was even knighted in 1882 and thus rose to the ranks of the nobility. The up-and-coming upper middle classes and nobility wanted to have him painted and offered large sums of money for his portraits.
As for many artists of his time, a trip to Italy was formative for his further style. Since Goethe, German artists in the 18th and 19th centuries have travelled in the footsteps of ancient cultures to the land of longing, Italy. There they hoped to find inspiration at the sites of Roman civilization and amid the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance. As a young man he visited Rome and Florence and trained his art on the works of the old masters. He made copies of important works such as Tizians and Rubens.
Lenbach's style was also clearly influenced by his teachers at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. The painter Carl Theodor von Piloty brought the young and promising artist Lenbach back from Italy to the Academy in Munich. There, under Piloty's watchful eye, Lenbach developed his special style, which focused on atmospheric coloring and lifelike staging. Lenbach's style was innovative in the sense that he focused his attention on the presentation of the individuality of his models. Lenbach wanted to depict his models with dignity and, despite all naturalism, to avoid depictions of poverty or misery, as could be found in Gustave Courbet or Jean Francois Millet, for example. Instead, Lenbach found his artistic role models more in the old masters such as Titian or Peter Paul Rubens.
With the success of his art, Franz Lenbach succeeded in making himself a wealthy and influential artist. He portrayed celebrities such as Otto von Bismark and even the acting pope. Nevertheless, he did not forget his family. He gave financial support to his siblings throughout his life. Lenbach's style suited the increasingly influential bourgeoisie of his time very well. Rich citizens wanted to be portrayed just as dignified and skilfully as the nobility. Lenbach was the right address for them.
Even though Franz von Lenbach was able to win the recognition of his contemporaries, his love life looked rather bad. During the first half of his life Lenbach was unhappily in love with Countess Marie von Dönhoff, who was trapped in an equally unhappy marriage with a Prussian diplomat. After her divorce, however, she chose not Lenbach but Bernhard von Bülow, the later Chancellor of the Reich, as the new man at her side. Lenbach's portrait of the Countess is still one of his most famous paintings. Even his two late marriages could not help him over this loss.
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.jpg "Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in uniform with a Prussian helmet by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Unknown Girl, Wilhelm Busch by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Baron Theodor by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Female Nude by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Imperial Chancellor Prince zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst by Franz von Lenbach")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1710871).jpg "Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary (1858-1889) by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Helene by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Hermann Levi, Facing Left. Study by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Daughter of Herodias with the Head of John; Half-Figure Standing by Franz von Lenbach")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1710386).jpg "Emma Mumm (von Schwarzenstein) by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Ernst Friedrich by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Study Head by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Otto Prince Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "The Architect Lorenz Gedon by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Otto von Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Female Nude by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "The Painter Franz by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "George II, Duke by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "A Shepherd Boy by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "The Alhambra in Granada by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Richard Wagner by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Rudolph by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Otto von Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "The Theologian Ignaz von Döllinger by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Baron Carl Eduard von Liphart by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Marie Baroness Harkányi by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Shepherd Boy by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Lady Mary Victoria Leiter Curzon by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Otto von Bismarck 1815-1898, 1884 by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Peasant Boy Eating Bread in the Room by Franz von Lenbach")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1724203).jpg "Staircase (Women")
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.jpg "Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Helene von Dönniges by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Village Cemetery Entrance by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Otto von Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Otto Prince Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Mary Lady Curzon of Kedleston by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Prince Otto von Bismarck, 1896 by Franz von Lenbach")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1724617).jpg "Mary Stuck (née Lindpaintner) by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Werner by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Franz Stuck by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Rudolf Virchow by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Richard Wagner, German composer, conductor, and essayist, late 19th century by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Pope Leo XIII by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Danae, Copy after Titian")
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.jpg "Portrait of Wilhelm Busch by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Angela Böcklin by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Friedrich Wilhelm Crown Prince of Prussia, as Friedrich III German Emperor by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Peasant Boy Eating Bread in the Room by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Adolf Oberländer by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "San Miniato al Monte in Florence by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Shepherd Boy on a Grassy Hill by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Copy after Titian: Resting Venus and Organ Player by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Writer Rudolph Genée by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Franz Liszt by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Charles V at Mühlberg by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Pope Leo XIII by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "The Painter Franz von Seitz by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Copy after Titian: Lavinia as Salome by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Princess Clementine by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Ludwig Baron by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Richard Wagner by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Bismarck by Henry Wolf")
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.jpg "Head of the Conductor Hermann Levi by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Composer Richard Wagner, 1868 by Franz von Lenbach")
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_1871_-_(MeisterDrucke-805114).jpg "Portrait of Composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Shepherd Boy on a Grass Hill by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Margarethe by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Australian Cancan Dancer Saharet, 1899 by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Richard Wagner, c.1870 by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Copy after Titian: Reclining Venus and Organ Player by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Two Peasant Boys on a Slope by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "The Landscape Painter Eduard Schleich by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Peasant Girl by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Luise, Crown Princess by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of a peasant in a hat – Fisherman by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Street in Cairo by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Josef Hösl by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Richard Wagner by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Charlotte Wolter by Franz von Lenbach")
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_Freifrau_-_(MeisterDrucke-1709686).jpg "Leopoldine (?) Baroness by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "A shepherd boy by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Böcklin by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Adolf Friedrich by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen by Franz von Lenbach")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1343360).jpg "Emma Mumm (von Schwarzenstein) by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Franz by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Lady by Franz von Lenbach")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1711199).jpg "Alois Hauser (1831 - 1909) by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Ernst Friedrich von Liphart by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Isabella Brandt by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Adolf Oberländer by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Bowling Society - Ten Artists")
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.jpg "Konrad Dreher by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Portrait of Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach")
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.jpg "Marion Lenbach in Knight")
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_Graefin_Erdoedy_-_(MeisterDrucke-1719039).jpg "Countess Maria Ilona (Helene) Erdödy by Franz von Lenbach")
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