Anselm Feuerbach and Iphigenia

'Iphigenia' (1870) by Anselm Feuerbach; Oskar Reinhart Foundation, Winterthur

Anselm Feuerbach, born on 12 September 1829, was a leading German Classicist painter of the German 19th century school. He studied art in Düsseldorf and Münich, then went to Paris where he worked under Thomas Couture and was influenced by Gustave Courbet and Eugène Delacroix. He lived in Italy for a while and many of his best paintings were produced during this period. He was very much interested in Greek and Roman art and antiquity and Italian High Renaissance painting. He painted two versions of Iphigenia, a Greek mythological figure. The first version dates from 1862 (click here) and the second one from 1871 (click here). Today's painting is neither version, but a study of the head for the second version and dates from 1870.