Johann Baptist Reiter (1813 - 1890)

The career of portrait and genre painter Reiter began with a three-year apprenticeship in his father’s carpenter’s workshop in Linz, where his work included painting company nameplates from engravings. In 1830 he went to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Leopold Kuppelwieser, Anton Petter and Johann Nepomuk Ender, earning a living by porcelain painting. Between 1834 and 1838 he had a scholarship from the Upper Austrian estates. At the same time he started to participate in exhibitions – regularly, between 1850 and 1870, in those of the Austrian Kunstverein. Professional success from the mid-1850s brought him many commissions and material prosperity. He drew inspiration from his first wife, Maria Anna Hofstätter, whom he divorced, also from his second wife, Anna Josefa Theresia Brayer, and his daughter, Anna Alexandrine (Lexi).

Author: Ducke Astrid

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. 169