August Eisenmenger

1830 - 1907 Austrian

Austrian painter of portraits and history

August Eisenmenger was an Austrian painter of portraits and historical subjects. He was born in Vienna. At the age of fifteen, Eisenmenger was already a student at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and won first prize in drawing. In 1848, his financial circumstances forced him to leave the Academy. He didn't find a secure position until he became a student/employee at Carl Rahl's studio in 1856. In 1863, he became a drawing teacher at the Protestant School in Vienna. He eventually obtained a professorship at the Academy in 1872. He also established a private school where he taught Rahl's style of monumental painting. Rudolf Ernst was one of his best known pupils there. He died in Vienna in 1907. In 1913, a street in Vienna's Döbling district was named after him. Later, that street was removed for an industrial site and a new street was dedicated to him in the Favoriten district in 1959. One of Eisenmenger's sons, Victor Eisenmenger, was the personal physician to Archduke Franz Ferdinand.