Max Joseph Wagenbauer (1775-1829)

Max Joseph Wagenbauer was born at the end of July 1775 in the town hall of Grafing. His parents were the Grafing market clerk Jakob Florian Wagenbauer and his wife Maria Regina.

At the age of seven, Wagenbauer was sent to Munich by his parents "to be educated for the sciences". At the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich, which he attended from 1788 to 1793, he attracted attention for his artistic talent. Accordingly, his school education was followed by a visit to the Munich Academy of Drawing. Here he studied under the gallery director Johann Jakob Dorner the Elder, specialising in Dutch genre and landscape painting.

In the course of his studies, Wagenbauer increasingly ran into financial difficulties. A request to Elector Karl Theodor for financial support in 1795 went unanswered. And so, the following year, he was forced to join a Bavarian cavalry regiment. As a chevalier, he took part in the Battle of Hohenlinden in 1800.

A petition that Wagenbauer addressed to the new Elector Max IV Joseph in 1801 finally brought the longed-for breakthrough as an artist. Initially provided with only basic financial security, he subsequently rose from court and cabinet draughtsman (1802) to gallery inspector (1815). His diligence and skill earned him a high reputation as a landscape and animal painter, a recognition that was ultimately reflected in his appointment as a member of the Hessian Academy of Drawing (1818), the Prussian Academy of Arts (1820) and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (1824). Max Joseph Wagenbauer died of typhoid fever in Munich on 12 May 1829. He found his final resting place in Munich's South Cemetery.

Last edited on 06.10.2025