Josef Danhauser (19 August 1805 in Laimgrube, currently part of Mariahilf or Neubau, May 1845) was a painter from the Austrian Empire. He was one of the prominent artists of Biedermeier period, along with Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Peter Fendi, and others. Danhauser's works, which went largely unappreciated in his time, dealt with moralising subjects and had a clear influence of William Hogarth.
Early life and education
Danhauser was born in Vienna in 1805, the eldest son of sculptor and furniture manufacturer Joseph Ulrich Danhauser and his wife Johanna (née Lambert). He took his first painting lessons with his father and later assisted the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He studied with Johann Peter Krafft and made his first exhibition in 1826.
Invited by Johann Ladislaus Pyrker, patriarch of Venice, Danhauser visited Doges, where he started to study the Italian masters. He returned to Vienna via Trieste in 1827, visiting Prague. On 27 March 1827, he and his colleague de:Johann Matthias Ranftl molded Ludwig van Beethoven's death mask, roughly 12 hours after his death[1][2] and Danhauser painted a water-colour representing his deathbed. In 1828, he spent some time in Eger, with an invitation of this Hungarian city archbishop Pyrker. He solicited him for some pictures for the gallery of the Archdiocese.[3]
Career
After his father's death in 1829, his brothers and he managed his furniture factory during the Biedermeier movement, being the precursors of modern design. That made him put his painting career aside.
In 1833, Danhauser responded to a second invitation from Eger's archbishop, and he painted The martyr of Saint John for a new basilica in the city, and he received the Vienna Academy prize for his picture Die Verstoßung der Hagar, and he specialised in Genre works. In 1838, he was appointed vice-rector of the Academy and married Josephine Streit, who was the daughter of a physician and with whom he had three children, Josef, Gustav, Marie and Julie, born in 1839, 1841 and 1843 respectively.
Danhauser was appointed professor of historical painting at the academy in 1841, but left to travel around Germany and the Netherlands with the textile maker, art aficionado, and art sponsor Rudolf von Arthaber. In this journey, he was very interested in the Dutch School and the format of his works was smaller. He died of typhus in Vienna in 1845 and was buried in Hundstrumer Cemetery, though his grave was later moved.[4][5] In 1862, a street was named after him in Vienna.
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