Friedrich Zeller (1817 - 1896)

Austrian artist Friedrich Zeller painted architecture, landscapes and portraits. He studied from 1832 to 1838 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts with landscape and animal painter Friedrich Gauermann (1807–1862) who, together with Franz Steinfeld (1787–1868), played a decisive role in the development of realistic Biedermeier landscapes with views of the Alps. Zeller concentrated initially on portraits, until he moved to Salzburg in 1852. Here his clientèle admired particularly his paintings of landscapes, animals and architecture. He portrayed Emperor Franz Joseph I, his brother Archduke Ludwig Viktor, and Austrian nobility. At the end of the 1870s, on the recommendation of Princess Sophie Arenberg, he was appointed to the House of Arenberg in Brussels as commission artist and prince tutor. The meticulous detail of the clothing lend Zeller’s portraits a particular fascination.

Author: Habersatter Thomas

Literature: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg. I Ed.): Face to Face. Österreichische Porträtmalerei des 19. Jahrhunderts. 19th-century Austrian portrait painting. Residenzgalerie Salzburg I -DomQuartier Salzburg 6.6.-29.9.2025. Salzburg 2025, S. I p. 171