1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Preller, Friedrich

PRELLER, FRIEDRICH (1804–1878), German landscape-painter, was born at Eisenach on the 25th of April 1804. After studying drawing at Weimar, he went in 1821, on Goethe's advice, to Dresden, where in 1824 he was invited to accompany the grand duke of Weimar to Belgium. He became a pupil in the academy at Antwerp. From 1827 to 1831 he studied in Italy, and in 1831 received an appointment in the Weimar school of art. In 1834–1836 he executed in tempera six pictures on subjects taken from the Odyssey in the “ Roman House ” at Leipzig, in 1836–1837 the landscapes with scenes from Oberon in the Wieland room in the grand-ducal palace at Weimar, and in 1836–1848 six frescoes on Thuringian subjects commissioned by the grand duchess. In 1840 he visited Norway and produced a number of easel works, some of which are preserved at Weimar. In 1859 he revisited Italy, and on his return in 1861 he completed for the grand-ducal museum the frescoes illustrative of the Odyssey, which are held to constitute his chief claim to fame. Preller, who was also a successful etcher, died at Weimar on the 23rd of April 1878.