The Outstanding Medievalist Paintings of Emil Lauffer

Emil Johann Lauffer’s Self-Portrait (1853) from the book ‘Deutsche Arbeit’, Volume 8, page 777 (1909)

It seems that Emil Lauffer was not a prolific painter judging by the number of his works which have survived to this day. In spite of this issue I have decided to create a gallery with the most relevant artworks by this Czech artist which can be found online in good resolution. There is very little information about Lauffer’s life and it can only be found in German, and a few other European languages, via the proverbial sources of course.

Emil Johann Lauffer (born June 28, 1837 in Hof – died May 31, 1909) was a Moravian painter and director of the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. He was the son of the pharmacist Ferdinand Lauffer and his wife Amalia Spatzier. His older brother was the poet Ferdinand Josef Lauffer, who had to flee abroad after the unrest of 1848.

Emil Lauffer studied at the Vienna Art Academy with Christian Ruben and moved to Prague in 1865. He was involved in the painting of the Belvedere Pleasure Palace at Prague Castle, which he implemented based on the designs of his Viennese professor. He also realized the paintings by Mikoláš Aleš in the foyer of the National Theater in Prague.

Both Kriemhild accuses Hagen and Gunther of Siegfried’s Death (1881) and Merlin Presenting The Future King Arthur (1873) are outstanding artworks worth of praise. I think the pictorial style is very reminiscent of the frescoes which can be found at the Neuschwanstein Castle’s interiors in Bavaria painted by August Spiess and Ferdinand Piloty (among other artists), which were created circa the same historical period (this is a topic I covered roughly a couple of years ago).

Definitively Emil Lauffer was an artist who payed a lot of attention to detail, as his beautiful signature shows at the bottom left corner of his paintings (check it out on his Prinzenbraut painting for instance).

All in all I hope people here appreciate Emil Lauffer’s scarce but wonderful art as much as I do.

Sources: MutualArt, artnet, wikipedia (Deutsch) and Le Prince Lointain.

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‘Kriemhild accuses Hagen and Gunther of Siegfried’s Death’ (1881) by Emil Johann Lauffer
‘Merlin Presenting The Future King Arthur’ (1873) by Emil Johann Lauffer
‘Prinzenbraut’ (The Princess Bride) (1888) by Emil Johann Lauffer

Other works

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