GAUERMANN, FRIEDRICH ( 1807 62). An Austrian genre, landscape, and animal painter, born at Miesenbach, Lower Austria, September 20, 1807. He was a son of the land scape painter Jakob Gauermann. Under his father's direction he began studies in landscape, and he also diligently copied the etchings of the chief masters in animal painting which were contained in the Academy of Fine Arts and the Imperial Library of Vienna. In the summer he made art tours in Styria, Tyrol, and Salzburg. Two animal pieces which he exhibited at the Vienna exhibitions of 1824 were regarded as re markable productions for his years, and led to his receiving commissions in 1825 and 1826 from Prince Metternich and others. His reputa tion was greatly increased by his picture "The Storm," exhibited in 1829, and from that time his works were much sought after and obtained cor respondingly high prices. His "Field Laborer"
was regarded by many as the most noteworthy picture in the Vienna Exhibition of 1834, and his numerous animal pieces have entitled him to a place in the first rank of painters of that class of subjects. Gauermann was sincere and exact in his representation of German peasantry, according to their locality, individual habit, and environment, and though he is largely represented by pictures of animals, he painted such rural scenes as: "Husbandman Ploughing;" "Cows, Sheep, a Horse, etc." (in the Leipzig Museum) ; "Rural Smithy;" and "Watering Place in the Tyrol" (Berlin National Gallery). He was made mem ber of the Munich Academy in 1836. Gauermann left at his death, which occurred at Vienna, July 'T, 1862, over 1000 oil paintings, 565 drawings, and 15 unfinished pictures.