Timeline

Johann Drechsler is an outstanding artist of the Viennese School, both as a founding figure and by the merits of his own work. He was among the first to take a specialist interest in flower painting, and was followed over a long period by many important artists.

He began his career at the age of 16, painting flowers in the Vienna porcelain factory, and rose to become a Director of Porcelain Design at the Vienna Academy in 1807. At the same time he established himself as a master of conventional flower painting. Among theearliest examples of his work are a pair of flower paintings dating from 1783 (now in the Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw), but the majority of his canvases are dated between 1790 and 1809.