18 Facts About Anton Graff

Anton Graff's pupils included Emma Korner, Philipp Otto Runge and Karl Ludwig Kaaz.

Anton Graff was born as the seventh child of the craftsman Ulrich Graff and Barbara Graff nee Koller, at Untertorgasse 8 in Winterthur, Switzerland.

In 1753, Graff started studying painting at the art school of Johann Ulrich Schellenberg, in Winterthur.

Anton Graff was too successful, and the members of the local painters guild feared his competition.

Anton Graff travelled frequently to Munich to study paintings in different collections.

Anton Graff hesitated, he thought he was not good enough to work for the princely court of Saxony.

Anton Graff kept the academy post for life, although he got better paid offers at other academies.

Anton Graff made portraits of nearly 1,000 of his contemporaries and was the leading portrait painter in Germany, in the late 18th and early 19th century.

Anton Graff was the main portrait painter of German poets between the Enlightenment and early Romantic periods.

Anton Graff was the favourite portrait painter of the German, Russian, Polish and Baltic nobility.

However, Anton Graff received authorization to watch Frederick at a military parade in 1781.

Anton Graff was popular with the landed gentry, diplomats, musicians and scholars.

The price for a portrait by Anton Graff was calculated by size and details of the sitter's clothes.

In 1769 Anton Graff met Philipp Erasmus Reich, a well known bookseller and publisher in Leipzig.

Anton Graff cultivated friendships with many of his sitters, business partners and colleagues such as the Polish engraver Daniel Chodowiecki, the Swiss painters Salomon Gessner and Adrian Zingg and the Saxon engraver Johann Friedrich Bause.

Anton Graff became very popular with the Prussian nobility and they were good customers for him.

Anton Graff himself died of typhoid fever on 22 June 1813, at around 8pm in Dresden.

Anton Graff left his two surviving children, Caroline Susanne and Carl Anton, a fortune of 40,000 Thaler.