3-065-873 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Wilhelm von Kaulbach, 1874. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. F. Bruckmann, of '...the late Director of the Munich Academy...we are disposed to regard him as the greatest monumental painter of modern times...His childhood...is said to have been unhappy, and to have laid the foundation for his satirical humour and a degree of misanthropy...Being engaged to paint in the chapel of the hospital for the insane in Düsseldorf, he made studies from the inmates of the hospital, from which he afterwards produced his famous "Irrenhaus," or madhouse...[He painted a] series of frescoes in the new palace of the art-loving King Ludwig, drawn from the story of "Cupid and Psyche,"...[And in Munich he] executed a series of wall paintings in the Pinacothek, representing the history of art since the Renaissance...To the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 he sent a remarkable picture, "The Epoch of the Reformation," for which he was awarded a medaille d'honneur...For depth of thought, fertility of invention, alternate grandeur and humour - genial or satirical - and beauty of execution, Kaulbach is unquestionably the first of German mural painters...his design is pure and beyond reproach, except, perhaps, for its tendency to grandiose exaggeration'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.