Johann Matthias Ranftl (Vienna, 1804-1854) was a Viennese Biedermeier painter.
The artist's grandfather came to Vienna from Regensburg, where the painter Franz Anton Maulbertsch was his best man in 1766.
The parents, Johann Baptist Ranftl and Barbara Ranftl, née Kautz, ran an inn on the Favoritner Linien.
Johann Matthias Ranftl himself was born in the suburb of Wieden No. 125.
Inspired by his art-loving mother, Ranftl attended the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts from 1817, where he studied with Johann Baptist Lampi and Anton Petter.
On a very impressive study trip through Switzerland in 1819 and then through Germany, Ranftl decided to devote himself to landscape painting.
He gained access to the court and painted numerous portraits as well as a cycle of illustrations for Pushkin's Eugene Onegin.
After his return, Ranftl created some altarpieces and 15 life-size royal portraits for the County Hall in Varaždin (today Croatia).
From 1831 Ranftl lived permanently in Vienna.
In 1836 he accompanied the Austrian ambassador Prince Paul Esterházy to London.
In 1840 he married Aloisia Hartmann, the daughter of a Viennese silk manufacturer.
In 1849 Ranftl became a full member of the Vienna Academy.
Johann Matthias Ranftl died in 1854 from the Ruhr in the Vienna suburb of Wieden (today Waaggasse 5).
After his death, Ranftl received an honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery.
His subject matter ranged from landscape painting to portraiture, history painting, religious altarpieces and genre painting, for which he is still best known today.
He mainly turned to the genre during his time in Vienna after 1831.
Pictures from the countryside and scenes from Vienna were created.
A special feature was Ranftl's preference for depicting dogs, which made him known as the "dog painter" and "dog Raphael".
In his final years, Ranftl also worked intensively on printmaking experiments and invented a galvanographic technique, which is named after him as Ranftl's process. | Source: © Deutsche Wikipedia
Johann Matthias Ranftl (Vienna, 1804-1854) è stato un pittore Biedermeier viennese. Il Biedermeier è stato un movimento artistico ed ornamentale sviluppatosi nel periodo storico che intercorre tra il 1815-1848. Molto in voga tra la borghesia tedesca ed austriaca, viene spesso definito di genere "romantico".
I soggetti di Johann Matthias Ranftl spaziavano dalla pittura di paesaggio alla ritrattistica, alla pittura storica, alle pale d'altare religiose ed alla pittura di genere, per la quale è ancora meglio conosciuto oggi.
Si dedicò principalmente alla pittura di genere durante il suo soggiorno a Vienna dopo il 1831.
Furono create immagini della campagna e scene di Vienna.
Una caratteristica speciale era la preferenza di Ranftl per la rappresentazione dei cani, che lo rese noto come il "pittore dei cani”.
Nei suoi ultimi anni Ranftl lavorò intensamente anche su esperimenti di incisione ed inventò una tecnica galvanografica, che da lui prende il nome come processo di Ranftl.
Ranftl completò i suoi studi all'Accademia di Vienna con Johann Baptist Lampi il Vecchio, Anton Petter e Johann Peter Krafft.
Era amico dei suoi compagni di studio Josef Danhauser e Friedrich von Amerling.
Agli studi di Ranftl seguirono un soggiorno a Mosca e San Pietroburgo, dove conobbe Alexander Pushkin e realizzò illustrazioni per Eugene Onegin.
Nel 1836 accompagnò il principe Paul Esterházy a Londra e colse l'occasione per esplorare la pittura e le arti grafiche britanniche contemporanee, in particolare le opere di Edwin Landseer e John Constable. | Fonte: © Deutsche Wikipedia
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