Hermann Fidel Winterhalter (23 September 1808 – 24 February 1891) was a German painter, younger brother of the portrait painter

Franz Xaver Winterhalter Franz Xaver Winterhalter (20 April 1805 – 8 July 1873) was a German painter and lithographer, known for his flattering portraits of royalty and upper-class society in the mid-19th century. His name has become associated with fashionable court ...

(1805–73).

Life

Hermann Fidel Winterhalter was born in the small village of

Menzenschwand Menzenschwand ( Alemannic: ''Menzèschwand'') is a climatic health spa in the Black Forest in Germany. The village lies within the borough of St. Blasien in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Geography Menzenschwand comprises three villages, ' ...

(now part of

Sankt Blasien St. Blasien (Sankt Blasien) is a small town located in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Southern Black Forest, 17 km northeast of Waldshut-Tiengen. St. Blaise's Abbey in the Black Forest is locat ...

) in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

, Grand Duchy of Baden. His father, Fidel Winterhalter, made him follow a career as a painter in the footsteps of his older brother. Hermann Winterhalter was first trained as a

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

and later went to study painting in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. He settled in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

where he assisted his brother and exhibited at the Salon 1838-41, 1847 and 1869. So close was Hermann Winterhalter to his brother that not only his work but also his personality is hard to disassociate from his most famous sibling. There was no professional rivalry or personal friction in the many years they worked together. Hermann was an immense support to Franz Xaver's successful international career, and took charge of the latter's studio in Paris while he was abroad. He lived independently and had his own personality and points of view. In the 1850s, Hermann was more independent and developed a small portrait practice of his own. Among his works are '' Young Girl from Ariccia'' and the portrait of his Parisian patron Nicolas-Louis Planat de la Faye that is in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. After the fall of the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

, both brothers decided to retire in

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...

. Franz Xaver died in 1873; Hermann survived his brother for almost twenty years, dying in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

on 24 February 1891.

Gallery

File:Three demoiselles de la famille de Chateaubourg.jpg, Three demoiselles de la famille de Chateaubourg by Hermann Fidel Winterhalter, oil on canvas, 1850.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winterhalter, Hermann 1808 births 1891 deaths People from Sankt Blasien People from the Grand Duchy of Baden 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters