Franz Seraph Stirnbrand
1796–1882 · German portrait painter from Württemberg
Franz Seraph Stirnbrand (died 2 August 1882, Stuttgart) was a German portrait painter who worked mainly in Württemberg during the nineteenth century. His birth date is uncertain, and sources place it between 1788 and 1796. He was found abandoned in a ditch and raised as a foster child by the tax official Johann Baptist Röser. His surname, which means brow burn, refers to a scar on his forehead from a childhood accident.
He was apprenticed to a decorative house painter in Linz, where he took drawing lessons on Sundays. He later worked in Frankfurt, painting portraits on tins and cups at a tin factory, before settling in Stuttgart as a portraitist. He gained the patronage of Duchess Wilhelmine of Württemberg, and his commissions came from the nobility, senior officials and theatre circles. He travelled to Belgium, Paris and Rome, where he painted Pope Leo XII. In 1830 he built his own house, where he hosted gatherings with artists, musicians and writers. His works include the portrait of Prince Charles of Württemberg (1835).
Works (1)
