ITTENBACH, Franz - b. 1813 Königswinter, d. 1879 Düsseldorf

German painter. He was the youngest child of ten, born to staunchly Catholic parent who ran a small wine shop. Having successfully exhibited in 1831 at an exhibition of Dusseldorf artists in Cologne, Ittenbach was admitted to the Dusseldorf Academy in 1832. His teachers were Theodore Hildebrandt, and Carl Ferdinand Sohn, but above all, Wilhelm Schadow, with whom he studied privately and with whom he travelled to Rome in 1839. Upon his return to Germany in 1842, Ittenbach embarked on a Wandereise throughout the country in the company of his friends and fellow-students.

A devout Roman Catholic, Ittenbach persistently declined any commissions for mythological or pagan subjects, and as a rule devoted his energies exclusively to church decoration. His finest paintings are to be found at Bonn, in the church of St. Remigius, and in Breslau in a church dedicated to the same saint. There is also a remarkable Holy Family, dated 1861, painted for Prince Liechtenstein in his private chapel near Vienna, and many other works by him are in various Catholic churches in Germany. His only important fresco was painted in 1844 in the Fürstenburg church on the Apollinarisberg at Remagen, which he helped decorate with the brothers Müller and Deger, possibly under the direction of Schadow.

Ittenbach painted his first portrait, modest, but perceptive portrait of the Archbishop of Cologne, and over the next forty years, along with his well-known Madonnen and other religious subjects, Ittenbach produced portraits for several of the most prominent Catholic noble families of the rheinisch-westphälischen nobility.

Portrait of Dr. Franz Xavier von Soist

Franz von Soist was a doctor in Ehrenbreitstein, on the opposite side of the Rhine from Coblenz. He and his wife were most likely members of the local Catholic haute-bourgeoisie, from whom many of Ittenbach’s portraits were commissioned.

It can be seen in Dr. von Soist’s likeness, Ittenbach was capable of a sophisticated sense of immediacy in his portraiture which almost suggests a sort of German Ingres.

Portrait of Margarete von Soist

In the portrait of Franz von Soist’s wife, Ittenbach included the central panel of the Stefan Lochner altarpiece in Cologne cathedral.