Peter Fendi

Peter Fendi (September 4, 1796 – August 28, 1842 in Vienna) was an Austrian court painter, portrait and genre painter, engraver, and lithographer. He was one of the leading artists of the Biedermeier period.

Changing table, Fendi contracted a spinal injury, whereupon his sickly constitution was due. 1810-1813 he visited the k.k. Where he was a student of Johann Baptist Lampi. After the death of his father, Peter Fendi provided for his and his mother’s livelihood with writing work in a law firm.

Through the mediation of the art collector Joseph Barth Fendi came into contact with the President of the Academy, Anton Graf Lamberg-Sprinzenstein. This gave him the task of copying his collection of antique vases. In 1818, Fendi became a cabinet draftsman of the coin and antique cabinet. With his director, Anton von Steinbüchel, Fendi made a study trip to Salzburg and Venice.

Fendi was in the salon of the Caroline Pichler and began to circle a small circle of pupils (among others Carl Schindler, Albert Schindler, Johann Friedrich Treml, Rudolf Gaupmann and Johann Baptist Staudinger). The new director of the Mint and Antique Cabinet, Moritz Graf Dietrichstein, recommended Fendi to the Court from 1833, where he acquired the favor of the Empress Karolina Augusta and the Archduke Sophie. He became an instructor at the court and created children’s portraits and watercolors. In 1836 Fendi became a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Since the late 1930s he was one of the most sought-after portraitists of the Viennese Hochadels. At the end of his life he preferred to devote himself to the education of his favorite pupils. Fendi was buried at the Saint Marx cemetery in Vienna. In 1909 he received an award at the Vienna Central Cemetery (Group 14 A, number 43).

Peter Fendi left a very extensive work. He created over 2,000 sheets with copies of antique works from private and state collections of Vienna. As a lithographer, he was a pioneer with his attempts to print multi-color. As a portrait and genre painter, he was the founder of this genre in the Viennese Biedermeier and, alongside Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller and Josef Danhauser, is one of the most important artists of the time. His works reflect the feeling of the Biedermeier and are very lyrical and charming. The 400 watercolors, which are one of the best and most important of their kind in Austria in the 19th century, are also very popular. Fendi finally made the designs for the 5, 10, and 100 guilders banknotes issued by the Austrian state in 1841.

There are 40 watercolors of erotic content, traditionally attributed to Peter Fendi. But they are clearly not from him. In 1910, the Vierzig publishing house published erotic watercolors in facsimile production, the originals of which were alleged to be from Fendi, and have since been repeatedly erroneously attributed to it.

In 1875 the Fendigasse was named after the artist in Vienna. In 1996 a special stamp of the Austrian Post appeared on its 200th birthday. A brand with a motif after a painting by Peter Fendi had already appeared for Mother’s Day 1967.

Fendi painted in oil and watercolours, as well as working with printing, etching, lithography and wood carving. Multicolored prints by Fendi are considered pioneering achievements in the field of lithography. Fendi is remembered for his genre scenes, influenced by Dutch painters such as Adriaen Brouwer, Adriaen van Ostade and Rembrandt. Other influences on Fendi’s artistic development included the works of Italians such as Giovanni Bellini, Tintoretto, Titian, and Paolo Veronese, which he saw on a trip to Venice in 1821. He is also well known for his portraits of the aristocracy.

Fendi engraved a series five of Austrian banknotes that were issued in 1841.

His works are preserved in the Albertina Museum, the Austrian Gallery in the Belvedere, Kunsthistorisches Museum, and in the collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein in Vaduz.