Friedrich Gauermann (1807–1862) - Deer Trophy

Friedrich August Matthias GAUERMANN
(Scheuchenstein, 1807 – Vienna, 1862)

Deer trophy

Oil on panel
Monogrammed and dated lower right
41 x 32 cm
1831

Son of the Austrian painter Jakob Gauermann (1773-1843), he received his first artistic apprenticeship from his father, as did his brother Carl (1804-1829).
Then a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1822 to 1827, Friedrich had the opportunity to travel across his country between Styria, Tyrol and Salzburg. Subsequently, he left to discover foreign countries such as Dresden, Munich and Venice.
A particularly renowned painter of the Biedermeier period, he initially practiced a primitive naturalism inspired by the beginnings of Flemish painting. Following a major exhibition in 1830, Friedrich began painting mountain animals and landscapes and was then noticed by the Viennese aristocracy. Orders began to flow in with no less than the greats of the kingdom as clients: Metternich, Liechtenstein and Schwarzenberg.
After 1848, he gradually retired to his property in Miesenbach.
From 1861 he became a member of the Künstlerhaus in Vienna.
Note that he was present in 1855 at the Paris Salon with four paintings with typically Biedermeier themes: Expiring deer surrounded by vultures, Halt on the mountain, The end of the hunt, A peasant plowing the earth.
The artist died on July 7, 1862 in Vienna.

Museums: Vienna (Belvedere and Museum), Graz, St Pölten, Miesenbach…