View source for Martin Johann Schmidt

{{no citations|date=February 2024}}
{{Short description|Austrian painter}}
{{other people||Martin Schmidt (disambiguation){{!}}Martin Schmidt}}
[[File:KS Catherine small2.jpg|thumb|Characteristic late work in which all detail dissolves in uncountable specks of pigment in a seemingly random way: "The Beheading of Saint Catherine", 1791, study for an altar painting for Brno Cathedral that came not to be executed. Feuchtmüller (1989), catalogue raisonné No. 945]]
[[Image:Waizenkirchen - Altarbild.jpg|thumb|''The Virgin'' (1755), main altar of the parish church of Waizenkirchen ([[Upper Austria]])]]
'''Martin Johann Schmidt''', called ''Kremser Schmidt'' or ''Kremserschmidt'', (25 September 1718 – 28 June 1801), was one of the outstanding Austrian [[Painting|painters]] of the late [[Baroque]]/[[Rococo]] along with [[Franz Anton Maulbertsch]].

He was born at [[Grafenwörth]], [[lower Austria]], a son of the sculptor [[Johannes Schmidt (sculptor)|Johannes Schmidt]].  A pupil of [[Gottlieb Starmayr]], he spent most of his life at [[Stein an der Donau|Stein]], where he mostly worked in the numerous churches and monasteries of his Lower Austrian homeland. While the evolution of his style after 1750 shows that he had either spent a formative period in northern Italy or had at least had extensive contact with northern Italian works of art prior to that date, his works are also clearly influenced by [[Rembrandt van Rijn|Rembrandt]] (visible above all in his etchings) and the great fresco-painters of the Austrian Baroque, [[Paul Troger]] and [[Daniel Gran]].

Despite not having received formal academic training, in 1768 he was made a member of the [[empire|imperial]] [[academy]] at [[Vienna]] due to his artistic merits, which by that time had already been recognized by a wider public inside and outside of Austria.

Primarily he painted devotional images for private devotion and churches, including a considerable number of large [[altarpiece|altar paintings]]. His lively and colourful style made him extremely popular with people from all levels of society already during his lifetime. From 1780, mythological and low-life themes became increasingly frequent, only to be replaced by a renewed concentration on religious topics during the last years of Schmidt's life.  He died at Stein/Danube (now belonging to [[Krems an der Donau]]), aged 82.

He was an important [[drawing|draughtsman]] and has left numerous [[etching]]s which clearly show Rembrandt's influence.

While his earlier works typically show a warm [[chiaroscuro]], from about 1770 he used increasingly stronger and more lively colours. Simultaneously, both his style and his brush technique became much more free, making him, like Franz Anton Maulbertsch, an important predecessor of [[impressionism]]. In this aspect, his mature style is completely contrary to [[neoclassicism]], the style which increasingly dominated European art after about 1780.

== Further reading ==
* Garzarolli-Thurnlackh; ''Das graphische Werk Martin Johann Schmidt's (Kremser Schmidt), 1718 - 1801''; Zurich, 1925
* Dworschak, Feuchtmüller, Garzarolli-Thurnlackh, Zykan; ''Der Maler Martin Johann Schmidt genannt "Der Kremser Schmidt" 1718 - 1801''; Vienna, 1955
* Feuchtmüller; ''Der Kremser Schmidt. 1718-1801'', monograph and catalogue raisonné; Vienna, 1989, {{ISBN|3-7022-1689-8}} {{ISBN|978-3-7022-1689-4}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}

*{{Austriaforum|Biographien/Schmidt%2C_Martin_Johann}} 
*{{DNB portal|118892983|TYP=}} 
*[http://geschichte.landesmuseum.net/index.asp?contenturl=http://geschichte.landesmuseum.net/personen/personendetail.asp___id=-981667345 Entry on Martin Johann Schmidt in the database of the Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Vienna] {{in lang|de}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Martin Johann}}
[[Category:1718 births]]
[[Category:1801 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century Austrian painters]]
[[Category:18th-century Austrian male artists]]
[[Category:Austrian male painters]]
[[Category:Austrian etchers]]