Franz Defregger

Franz von Defregger was a well-known Austrian painter, whose works are famous in- and outside Austria. He was born on 30 April 1835 in Ederdorf in the municipality of Dölsach (East Tyrol) in a farmer family. As a teenager he dreamt of moving to the United States but he never managed to. Instead, he moved to Innsbruck where he studied with the professor and sculptor Michael Stolz at the Innsbrucker Gewerbeschule. Thanks to this prestigious education he could launch his career as a painter. He moved to Munich where he attended the painting lessons held by Hermann Anschütz, a pupil of Cornelius, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. During this time period he moved to Paris for two years to study at the École des beaux arts. In 1878 he was appointed Professor of Historic Painting at the academy of Munich, a title he held until 1910. Franz von Defregger died on 2 January 1921 at the age of 85 in Munich where he was buried in the family grave.

Some of his most famous works include Der Zitherspieler (the Zither Player, 1887), Das Glockenspiel (Music Box, 1890), Vom Regen überrascht (Surprised by the Rain, 1891), Der letzte Kuss (The Last Kiss, 1874), Heimkehr des Siegers (Return of the Winner, 1876) and many more. The most interesting artworks depict scenes from the everyday life of farmers. Defregger was born into a farmer family, a fact that heavily influenced his work, including the painting Sarntheiner Bauern (the farmers of the Val Sarentino) from 1913.

Franz von Defregger loved South Tyrol and nourished a deep interest in the great feats achieved by Andreas Hofer, a freedom fighter. Therefore, some of his paintings are exhibited in the Municipal Museum of Bolzano.