Moritz Michael Daffinger (25 January 1790 – 21 August 1849) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n miniature painter and sculptor.

Life

Daffinger was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, the son of Johann Daffinger (1748–1796), a painter at the local Vienna Porcelain Manufactory. The eleven-year-old likewise was accepted as an apprentice and later went on to study at the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

, where he took painting lessons with Heinrich Füger. He returned to work at the factory as one of its leading painters. From 1809 he worked only on

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

, specializing in

miniature A miniature is a small-scale reproduction, or a small version. It may refer to: * Portrait miniature, a miniature portrait painting * Miniature art, miniature painting, engraving and sculpture * Miniature (chess), a masterful chess game or proble ...

painting on ivory, and small

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache ...

s on paper. In 1812, he was employed as a portraitist by the Austrian Foreign Minister,

Klemens von Metternich Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ; german: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternic ...

, and became curator of the extensive portrait collection of Metternich's third wife, Princess Melanie. In 1819, he painted a portrait of Metternich's daughter, Klementine, posed as the goddess Hebe. He was influenced by

Jean-Baptiste Isabey Jean-Baptiste Isabey (11 April 1767 – 18 April 1855) was a French painter born at Nancy. He was a successful artist, both under the First Empire and to the diplomats of the Congress of Vienna. Life At the age of nineteen, after some lesson ...

and even more strongly by the English portrait painter

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at t ...

, who visited Vienna in 1819. In his late years, he concentrated on the painting of flowers. Daffinger died in 1849 during a cholera epidemic in Vienna and was buried in the

St. Marx Cemetery St. Marx Cemetery (Sankt Marxer Friedhof) is a cemetery in the Landstraße district of Vienna, used from 1784 until 1874. It contains the unmarked grave of the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. History The cemetery was named after a nearb ...

. In 1912, his remains were transferred to a ''grave of honor'' (german:

Ehrengrab An ''Ehrengrab'' ( English: 'grave of honor') is a distinction granted by certain German, Swiss and Austrian cities to some of their citizens for extraordinary services or achievements in their lifetimes. If there are no descendants or institut ...

) in the Vienna

Zentralfriedhof The Vienna Central Cemetery (german: Wiener Zentralfriedhof) is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its ...

. Daffinger left more than a thousand portraits, many of which were owned by the Austrian imperial

House of Habsburg-Lorraine The House of Habsburg-Lorraine (german: Haus Habsburg-Lothringen) originated from the marriage in 1736 of Francis III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Maria Theresa of Austria, later successively Queen of Bohemia, Queen of Hungary, Queen of ...

. His portrait graced the obverse of the Austrian 20-

schilling Schilling may refer to: * Schilling (unit), an historical unit of measurement * Schilling (coin), the historical European coin * Austrian schilling, the former currency of Austria * A. Schilling & Company, an historical West Coast spice firm acquir ...

banknote that circulated until the introduction of the

euro The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

in 1999.

Gallery

File:Daffinger-Wife of the artist.jpg, Portrait of the Artists' Wife File:Nap-receis 50.jpg,

Napoleon II , house = Bonaparte , father = Napoleon I, Emperor of the French , mother = Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma , birth_date = , birth_place = Tuileries Palace, Paris, French Empire ...

, from a postcard File:Moritz Daffinger - Kekropsove hčerke najdejo Erihtonija.jpg, Detail from a

Vienna porcelain Vienna porcelain is the product of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory (German: ''Kaiserlich privilegierte Porcellain Fabrique''), a porcelain manufacturer in Alsergrund in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1718 and continued until 1864. The firm wa ...

tray painted by Daffinger, after 1808, ''Cecrops' Daughters Discover Erichtonius'' File:Moritz Michael Daffinger 001.JPG , Portrait of Countess Ferdinandine Karolyi,

External links

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daffinger 1790 births 1849 deaths Austrian painters Austrian male painters Austrian sculptors Austrian male sculptors Artists from Vienna