Albert Emil Kirchner

(b Leipzig, 12 May 1813; d Munich, 4 June 1885). German painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He entered the Akademie Leipzig in 1828, studying drawing and anatomy under Friedrich Brauer. He continued his training in Dresden with J. C. Dahl and, most significantly, Caspar David Friedrich, who inspired his subjective approach to the depiction of landscape. Returning to Leipzig in 1832, he began working for Dr Ludwig Puttrich's Denkmale der Baukunst des Mittelalters in Sachsen (Leipzig, 1836-52); his studies of notable buildings, such as the Golden Gate in Freiburg, developed his abilities as a painter and draughtsman of architecture. In 1834 Kirchner moved to Munich, where he joined the circle of Moritz von Schwind and Bonaventura Genelli. His summer excursions to the Alps led to lithographic series such as the Views of the Tyrol and Salzburg and Views of Munich and its Environs. By 1837 he had achieved a considerable reputation in the Munich Kunstverein as a painter of the architecture and landscapes of southern Germany and Italy. Kirchner's mature style fused Romantic influences with precise observation, as in his View of St Mark's Square, Venice (1865; ex-Schack-Gal., Munich). He joined the Etching Union founded in Munich in 1845, providing illustrations for a de luxe edition of Schiller's poems (Stuttgart, 1859) and for cultural guides to Venice, Switzerland and Italy. In later years he became an important member of the Munich art establishment, an honorary member of the Akademie and the recipient of a substantial State pension.

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