Joseph Wintergerst
# Joseph Wintergerst

Joseph Wintergerst (3 October 1783, Wallerstein - 25 January 1867, Düsseldorf) was a German painter in the Romantic style; associated with the Nazarene movement.

## Life and work

He was born to the painter, Anton Wintergerst (1737–1805), and his second wife, Maria Barbara née Bux, daughter of the faience maker, Johann Baptist Bux (1716-1800). After 1804, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, then the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. There, in 1809, he became one of the co-founders of the "Lukasbund" artists' guild. In 1811, he went to Rome with his friends, Friedrich Overbeck and Franz Pforr, and joined the artists' colony at Sant’Isidoro a Capo le Case.

Pforr's untimely death in 1812 left him unsettled so, in 1813, he went to Switzerland, accompanied by Christian Xeller [de], and taught at the Cantonal school in Aarau. After 1815, he was a drawing teacher at the gymnasium in Ellwangen. In 1822 his friend, Peter von Cornelius, hired him as a drawing teacher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where Cornelius was Acting Director. Two years later, Wintergerst succeeded Peter's brother, Lambert Cornelius [de] as "Inspector" and began giving drawing lessons at the Royal Gymnasium [de]. He resigned these positions in the early 1850s and retired.

His sister, Maria Barbara Wintergerst [de] was one of his students. She also became a well known painter and drawing teacher.

