page_title: Oswald Achenbach
section_title: Schirmer and Andreas Achenbach
hierarchical_section_title: Oswald Achenbach / Influences / Schirmer and Andreas Achenbach
context_page_description: Oswald Achenbach was a German painter associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Though little known today, during his lifetime he was counted among the most important landscape painters of Europe. Through his teaching activities, he influenced the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His brother, Andreas Achenbach, who was twelve years older, was also among the most important German landscape painters of the 19th century. The two brothers were humorously called "the A and O of Landscapes".
context_section_description: During his education, Achenbach was never actually a student of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer.  However, has an artist who spent the greater part of his life in Düsseldorf, he nevertheless had many opportunities to study his paintings.  In Achenbach's paintings from the 1840s and early 1850s, Achenbach's paintings contain many of Schirmer's principles of composition.  In his later paintings, this influence is no longer identifiable.
   
  The influence of Schirmer on his early works is likely due to his brother, twelve years older, Andreas Achenbach, who likewise studied at the Düsseldorf Academy. Andreas was a student of Schirmer's and from certain letters it can be concluded that from at least the 1840s Oswald was receiving advice from Andreas about technique and was therefore indirectly influenced by Schirmer's views on painting. At the heights of their careers, Oswald concentrated on depictions of Italian landscapes while Andreas looked to marine scenes.  In their treatment of light and staffage the works of the two brothers resemble each other.
caption: Shore of the Frozen Ocean (Winter Landscape). 1839, Oswald's brother, Andreas specialized more in marine landscapes.
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