Ferdinand Brunner

_{Vienna 1870 - 1945 Vienna}

The landscape painter Ferdinand Brunner was born in Vienna in 1870. Initially he worked as a stage designer at the renowned Hoftheater atelier of Carlo Brioschi, Hermann Burghart and Hans Kautsky. A study trip to Carinthia finally led Ferdinand Brunner towards his true vocation as a painter. In 1891 he was accepted as a student in the class for landscape painting at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts where his teacher Eduard Peithner von Lichtenfels also became his foremost mentor. He was awarded many prizes before he even finished his studies in 1896 and received several scholarships that allowed him among other things to stay in Italy for a prolonged period . In 1901 he became a member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus and in 1922 was awarded an honorary professorship. Ferdinand Brunner died in 1945 in Vienna at the age of 75. He is considered one of the most lyrical Austrian painters of the late 19th and early 20th century. His œuvre is dominated by paintings of gentle, wide-open, poetic landscapes that are characterized by a latent yearning for serenity and calmness. The works of the artist, who had received several marks of distinction such as the “Grosse Goldene Staatsmedaille” medal in 1910, are in the possession of the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, the Wien Museum, the Sammlung Leopold and many important private collections.