GEGENBAIIR, ga•gen-bour, JOSEPH ANTON vox (1800-76). A German historical painter, born at Wangen, Warttemberg. His first efforts without instruction were so promising that Rob ert von Langer admitted him at the age of fif teen to his class in drawing at the Munich Acad emy. In 1820 he brought to Stuttgart the por traits of his parents and a "Saint Sebastian," which so favorably impressed the sculptor Dan necker that he recommended the young artist to King William. By a royal stipend Gegen bauer was enabled to study three years longer in Munich, and then, until 1826, in Italy, where, besides sketching diligently from nature, he de voted himself particularly to the works of Ra phael, and developed high qualities as a color ist. To his appreciation of Raphael his "Ex pulsion from Paradise" and "Moses Striking the Rock," both in the Royal Palace at Stuttgart, bear witness. His first attempt in fresco-paint ing, "Hercules and Omphale," made in 1826 on one of the walls of his studio, was bought by Thorwaldsen for his museum at Copenhagen. A copy in oil on a smaller scale is in the Stuttgart Gallery. On his return to Stuttgart he was
intrusted with the execution of frescoes in the Royal Villa Rosenstein, near Cannstatt, depicting the story of "Cupid and Psyche" according to Apuleius, and "The Four Seasons." After a second sojourn in Italy, from 1829 to 1835, he was appointed Court painter at Stuttgart, and for nearly twenty years was employed in decorating a number of rooms in the new royal palace with episodes from the mediaeval history of Wart temberg. Besides these important works, his principal creations, he painted many excellent por traits and easel pictures of religious and mytho logical subjects, in Stuttgart and in Rome, where in his latter years he regularly passed the winter, and where he died. In all his creations he proved himself a draughtsman of superior skill, with a perfect command of the human form, and his frescoes are to be commended for great power of invention, clearness of composition, spirited animation in the figures, and an unusually rich and vigorous coloring.