PRELLER, Friedrich Johann Christian Ernst, German painter: b. Eisenach, 25 April 1804: d. Weimar, 23 April 1878. In the same year in which he was born, his parents moved to Weimar where he became acquainted with Goethe in his youth, and received encourage-. ment and finally a pension from the Grand Duke Karl August of Weimar which enabled him to travel and study from 1826-31 first in Holland and later in Italy where he imbibed more from the classic than the Renaissance art and formulated a pictorial philosophy in which he saw man as the culmination of all earthy beauties. His important works, especially the series suggested by Homer's Odyssey, now in the Museum of Weimar, are bold and vigorous landscapes forming a setting for nude figures of heroic mold. To paint such subjects was the necessity of his artistic creed; yet he fre quently turned to other fields. partly for finan cial reasons, partly because of his deep interest in and love of all phases of nature. In 1840 he made a sketching trip to Norway, and frankly adopting the naturalism of Ruysdael, of whom he had been an ardent admirer since his early youth and one of whose pictures he copied when he first began seriously the study of painting, he painted landscapes for sale. Even
these were vigorous and meritorious in execu tion, if not fully representing his genius. He made unremitting sketches from nature and left behind him a long series of remarkable drawings. In later years he made other jour neys to Italy, though most of his time was spent in Weimar where he taught at the Art Academy. Besides the Odyssey landscapes he also painted frescoes in the Wieland room of the Weimar palace showing scenes from Oberon. Paintings from his brush are to be seen in the National Gallery at Berlin and in museums at Weimar, Dresden, Leipzig, Stutt gart and Munich. He was also interested in etching and etched many of his own paintings. Consult Gensel, J.,