!!!Schmidt, Martin Johann genannt Kremser Schmidt

b. Grafenwoerth near Krems (Lower Austria), Sept. 25, 1718, 
d. Stein an der Donau (Lower Austria), June 28, 1801. Excellent 
baroque painter and etcher. Son of the sculptor Johannes S.; his first 
teachers were G. Starmayr and B. Rosaforte (both pupils of the Strudel 
brothers) in Duernstein, later he was probably a student at the Vienna 
Academy (member from 1768). He studied the art of J. van  Schuppen and 
the great Austrian masters (P.  Troger, D.  Gran). Living in Stein 
from 1748, he had a decisive influence on the development and 
importance of oil painting. Apart from some large ceiling paintings, 
more than 1,000 altarpieces and devotional pictures in churches and 
abbeys have been preserved. Painted mostly in a warm chiaroscuro, they 
depict biblical scenes in an idyllic, poetic style. Later S. also 
painted mythological pictures ("Judgement of Midas", "Venus and Cupid 
at Vulcan's Forge"), both 1768, Akademie der bildenden Kuenste in 
Vienna). Apart from etchings, which reflect his intensive study of 
Rembrandt from 1749, he produced numerous drawings, the majority of 
which are sketches for altarpieces.

!Works
ceiling paintings: parish church Krems, 1745; parish church 
Stein; city hall in Stein; refectory of Duernstein Abbey, 1755; chapel 
of Herzogenburg Abbey, 1756 (all in Lower Austria). - Altarpieces: 
Stein, from 1745; Krems, from 1747; Seitenstetten, 1755; 
St. Poelten, 1757; Lilienfeld, 1759; Duernstein, 1767; Goettweig, 
1769; Melk, 1772; Maria Taferl, 1799 (all in Lower Austria); St. Peter 
(Salzburg), 1796; Kremsmuenster (Upper Austria), 1798. - Drawings and 
etchings: collections of the abbeys in St. Peter, St. Paul 
im Lavanttal, St. Florian and Seitenstetten, of the 
Oesterreichische Galerie Belvedere (baroque museum) and of the 
Albertina in Vienna.

!Literature
R. Feuchtmueller, Der Kremser Schmidt, 1989 (with index of 
works); G. M. Lechner and M. Gruenwald, Goettweig und 
Kremser Schmidt, exhibition catalogue, Goettweig 2001.



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