Thomas Ender

Thomas Ender (born November 3, 1793 in Vienna and died on September 28, 1875 in this same city), is an Austrian landscape painter and watercolorist. It is the twin brother of Johann Ender and the uncle of Eduard Ender, both painters.

Thomas Ender was born as the son of the jumper Johann Ender and the twin brother of the historian Johann Nepomuk Ender in the former suburb Spittelberg No. 123 (today Faßziehergasse 6). Together with his brother, he joined the Vienna Academy in 1806, where he studied the history painting with Hubert Maurer, but then changed to Laurenz Janscha in 1810 in his landscape class. After the death of Janschas in 1812 Joseph Mößmer became his teacher. As early as 1810 Ender had received the first prize of the Academy for Landscape Drawing.

After a few study trips, Thomas Ender was awarded the Great Painter Prize for Landscape Painting donated by the Emperor in 1817. Prince Clemens Metternich acquired the award-winning image and encouraged the artist from then on. Thus he enabled him to participate in the Austrian expedition to Brazil in 1817, while the Ender produced over 700 drawings and watercolors. After his return, Metternich took him to Rome, where Ender was allowed to reside as an imperial pensioner until 1823.

From 1823, Ender worked for Metternich in the Salzkammergut, and became a member of the Vienna Academy in 1824.

In 1826 he made a study trip to Paris.

In 1828 he was appointed chamberlain of Archduke Johann and took part in his Orient and South Russia trip in 1837, which led him to Constantinople and Greece.

Subsequently, Ender became a professor at the Vienna Academy from 1837 to 1851 and created several landscaping series, often engraved in steel by English artists.

In 1845, Ender was appointed Imperial Counselor and retired in 1851. He was awarded the Order of Franz Joseph in 1853, and in 1854 he was awarded the Civil Code. In 1855 and 1857 Ender again went on a trip to Italy.

Thomas Ender was married to Theresia Arvay in 1832 and was buried at the Central Cemetery in Vienna after his death on 30 September 1875. In 1922 the Endergasse in Vienna-Meidling was named after the painter family Ender.

Thomas Ender combined his artistic skills in landscape painting with a scientific interest in topographical conditions. His paintings from Brazil are of particular importance. But also within Austria, Ender was interested in a topographic survey of the Alpine countries, which were commissioned and in the interests of the imperial house. In this way, Ender was within a time stream that endeavored to document the world and nature as extensively and exactly as the painter Johann Knapp captured the plant treasures of the Austrian imperial house in Schönbrunn Palace with the greatest artistic mastery.

Works:
The Arwaburg, watercolor by Thomas Ender from the 1860s.
The cemetery gate (Vienna, Austrian Gallery Belvedere, Inv. No. 6047), around 1820, oil on canvas, 34 × 44 cm
The Grossglockner with the Pasterze (Vienna, Austrian Gallery Belvedere, Inv. No. 6068), 1832, oil on canvas, 39 × 54 cm
The Vienna Gate in Krems (St. Pölten, Lower Austrian Provincial Museum, Inv. No. 660), circa 1836-37, watercolor, 16.8 × 22.7 cm
View of the Burgruine Dürnstein (St. Pölten, Lower Austrian Provincial Museum, Inv. No. 850), around 1840-45, watercolor, 20.7 × 27.7 cm
View of the Melk Abbey (St. Pölten, Lower Austrian Provincial Museum, Inv. No. 4215), 1841, oil on canvas, 51.5 × 70 cm
The Weitenegg castle ruin with a view towards Melk Abbey (St. Pölten, Lower Austrian Provincial Museum, Inv. No. 7134), 1841, oil on wood, 25.7 × 30.5 cm
The Miracle of the Danube (book after his drawings), 1841
View from Mariahilferberg near Gutenstein against the Schneeberg (St. Pölten, Lower Austrian Provincial Museum, Inv. No. 126/81), around 1845-50, oil on canvas, 85.5 × 119.4 cm
The picturesque Austria (chromolithographic plates), 1850-56
View of Rio de Janeiro, oil on canvas, 126.5 × 189 cm, picture gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Inv. No. GG-171