Franz von Defregger

Franz von Lenbach's 1889 portrait of Franz von Defregger — the Tyrolean genre painter who was one of Munich's most popular artists — is a portrait of one major artist by another, within the same Munich establishment. Defregger's paintings of Tyrolean peasant life and historical subjects, particularly his depictions of Andreas Hofer and the Tyrolean uprising of 1809, had made him nationally celebrated. Lenbach's portrait of Defregger is a document of Munich's artistic leadership at the end of the decade, capturing the two most commercially successful painters of the German art world in a shared moment.

Lenbach brings his characteristic dark technique to the portrait of his fellow painter — the warm chiaroscuro that gives his portraits their Old Master gravity. Defregger's face and bearing would be rendered with the specific attention Lenbach brought to sitters he knew well — the slightly different quality of portrait-of-an-artist, where shared professional understanding informs the characterization. The overall approach is consistent with Lenbach's established manner: dark ground, strong chiaroscuro, warm earth tones, penetrating observation.