4330 - Theodor Weller, Pipe Smoker

Theodor Weller, Pipe Smoker A man seated at a table holding an Ulm bagpipe (also known as a sackpipe) in his left hand, looking to the right; in front of him a glass of brandy, next to it a clay bottle; half-length portrait, a fine Biedermeier portrait of an elderly gentleman, dressed in attire more befitting leisure, oil on canvas, monogrammed ‘TW’ in the lower right-hand corner, canvas patches on the reverse, significant signs of wear, gilded frame with chips, inner dimensions 72.5 x 63 cm. Artist information: actually Theodor Leopold Weller, German portrait and genre painter (1882 Mannheim - 1880 Mannheim), though destined to become a lawyer, he nevertheless initially studied at the Mannheim Art School and, from 1819 to 1825, at the Munich Academy under Johann Peter von Langer; influenced by Peter von Cornelius and Peter Heß, he travelled to Rome in 1825 together with Ernst Fries, where he continued his studies at the Academy of San Luca, travelled through Italy as far as Naples; returned to Mannheim in 1833 and undertook study trips to Paris and Düsseldorf until 1836; was in Rome again from 1839 to 1848, where he became a member of the German Artists’ Association in 1845 and a member of its executive committee in 1846-47, In 1851, he was appointed Grand Ducal Court Painter of Baden and Director of the Mannheim Picture Gallery; he was a member of the Mannheim Art Association, serving at times as a member of its executive committee and as curator, and worked in Mannheim, Source: Thieme-Becker, Saur ‘Bio-Bibliographical Encyclopaedia of Artists’, Nagler, Müller-Klunzinger, Seubert, Müller-Singer, Boetticher, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Bruckmann ‘Munich Painters of the 19th/20th Centuries’, Register of the Munich Academy and Wikipedia.