The “painter prince” Jan Matejko in Bonn

Today, the term “painter prince” (“Malerfürst”) is generally used to refer to high-profile artists from the contemporary art scene or the recent past, such as Jörg Immendorf, Markus Lüpertz, or Georg Baselitz. The major German-language media only rarely use the phrase in a positive light. Rather, it is associated with self-promotion, the forging of close ties to politicians, an extravagant lifestyle, a sometimes reckless attitude to money, and marketing strategies that call the originality of the artworks produced into question. In Austria, Ernst Fuchs was praised after his death as being one of the most important artists of the day, while at the same time, the “painter prince” was placed on a par with the “genius of kitsch”.[1]

However, the title of “painter prince” as used today, which has never been more precisely defined and which has certainly never been officially bestowed, was coined and became publicly known during the final quarter of the 19th century. The prototype of this artist genre was and still remains the Austrian historical and portrait painter Hans Makart (1840–1884),[2] who, after studying in Munich and then journeying on various study tours, was called to Vienna in 1869, where he set himself up in a luxurious studio paid for by the state. From 1872 onwards, this studio became the centre of artistic and social life in Vienna and with its furnishings – wall hangings, carved furniture, carpets, antiquities, historical weaponry and huge bouquets of dried flowers and palm fronds (still known today as “Makart bouquets”) – it was an important source of inspiration for the interior designs of the time. Here, the painter held artists’ parties, the like of which quickly became fashionable in Munich and elsewhere. He received the Empress Elisabeth and opened his doors to groups of tourists during the afternoon. At the latest, Makart attained princely status, at least symbolically, with the presentation of his monumental painting “The Entry of Charles V into Antwerp” (“Der Einzug Kaiser Karls V. in Antwerpen”) in the Viennese Künstlerhaus in March 1878, which attracted tens of thousands of visitors, and the organisation of the historical pageant in April 1879 in celebration of the silver wedding anniversary of the imperial couple, with costumes designed by the artist. As the daily press reported, not only was he “showered like a king with salutations from the public”, riding high on a horse in the middle of the pageant, but “the famous painter prince” passed on the ovations to the imperial couple, who graciously greeted the masses in return.[3] 

Munich, the capital of the Kingdom of Bavaria, produced three more or less official “painter princes” at once, who are still referred to as such today in both historical and popular literature: Franz von Lenbach (1836–1904), Friedrich August von Kaulbach (1850–1920) and Franz von Stuck (1863–1928).[4] Lenbach, who like Makart studied at the Academy of Art under the historical painter Carl Theodor von Piloty (1826–1886), became established in Munich as a successful portrait painter from 1866 onwards. In Vienna, too, he became a highly sought-after portraitist among the financial aristocracy and the nobility. He gained his reputation as a “painter prince” not least as a result of his palatial villa, which was built between 1886 and 1889, in which an impressive art collection and sumptuously furnished studio rooms were designed to enhance the quality of his own art. Today, the art museum named after him is still housed in the same building. In a similar way, Kaulbach and Stuck built lavish residences in order to retain the prestige attained through their painting. Kaulbach, who was primarily a portrait painter, had a villa built in the Italian Renaissance style in 1887–89, with a studio that was regarded as one of the most elegant of its time in Munich.[5] Stuck, who was almost an entire generation younger, and who painted mythological and symbolist themes, built a neoclassicist villa in 1897/98 that can still be visited today, in which he designed his studio as a sanctified space for art.[6]