Edgar Meyer

Edgar Meyer (Innsbruck, 1853 – Aldrans, 1925) was an Austrian painter known for landscapes, mountain scenes and castles, mainly in watercolour, with an impressionist-style approach. He studied in Munich and at the Düsseldorf Academy, extended his training with trips to Rome and Venice, and lived in Weimar, also working as a professor in Charlottenburg-Berlin.

His works, such as Aus Eppan or Venedig, Torbögen, sold well, especially in Germany. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the rise of revolutionary art made his work fall out of favour, and he returned to the Tyrol. There he bought the medieval ruins of Welfenstein Castle near Sterzing and rebuilt it between 1893 and 1897 as a romantic building with towers and battlements. A fire in November 1918 destroyed much of the building and its contents. In 1910 he co-founded the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum.

Meyer was also heavily involved in nationalist politics, marked by the Calliano incident of 1907 and, after 1918, by antisemitic speeches.