Wilhelm von Kobell

The painter and etcher Wilhelm Alexander Wolfgang von Kobell was initially trained by his father Ferdinand. Later he received his training at the Mannheim Drawing Academy from Franz Anton von Leydendorff and Egid Verhelst. In 1792 he followed an appointment as court painter to Munich, where – apart from numerous journeys – he remained until the end of his life. His early paintings were initially strongly influenced by 17th-century Dutch painting, especially Philips Wouwermans and Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchems, whose works he reproduced in numerous aquatint sheets. With his move to Munich, the Dutch models receded in Kobell’s work, the brightening of the pictorial spaces increased, a clear, cool light determined the composition. Kobell now frequently drew in the open air. In 1808 he was commissioned by the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to glorify the heroic deeds of the ‘New Bavarians’ in a cycle of scenes from the Napoleonic Wars, among them ‘The Siege of Kosel’, which he worked on until 1815. In 1809 and 1810 von Kobell spent time in Vienna and Paris, among other places, to study for this cycle, where he also pursued several smaller commissions for portraits and genre scenes. From 1814 to 1826 he taught landscape painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In 1817 he received the personal and in 1833 the hereditary title of nobility by King Ludwig I. Wilhelm von Kobell died in Munich on 15 July 1853. Together with Johann Georg von Dillis and Johann Jakob Dorner, he is considered the founder of landscape and genre painting of the Munich School.