Franz Xaver Winterhalter Overview

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805 – 1873) was a German painter and lithographer, known for his portraits of royalty in the mid-nineteenth century. His name has become associated with fashionable court portraiture.

Winterhalter was born in the small village of Menzenschwand in Germany on April 20, 1805. He was the sixth child of Fidel Winterhalter and Eva Meyer, a member of a long established Menzenschwand family. His father was of peasant stock and was a powerful influence in his life. Of the eight brothers and sisters, only four survived infancy. Throughout his life, Franz Xaver remained very close to his family in particular to his brother Hermann (1808-1891), who was also a painter.