Anton Ferdinand Schaller

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Anton Ferdinand Schaller (6 March 1773 – 26 September 1844) was an Austrian painter in the Classical style. He was born and died in Vienna. His father worked as a lathe operator at the Imperial State Porcelain Manufactory, and his younger brother Johann Nepomuk became a sculptor.

Schaller showed early talent for art. He started as a potter, but from 1789 he studied handicrafts and decorative sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts. He also trained at the porcelain factory, where his drawing skill impressed the director Matthäus von Niedermayer. After winning a prize for an oil painting of a scene from Goethe’s Iphigenia in Tauris, Niedermayer asked him to design porcelain based on historical paintings. From 1801 to 1807 he was the Manufactory’s first figure painter.

He then developed a nervous disorder that stopped his work until 1818. In 1819 he became a Korrektor at the Academy’s painting and sculpture school. He did many drawing studies of nature and anatomy. In 1831 he was appointed Professor of anatomical drawing at the Academy. After that, he mainly taught, with occasional oil paintings, mostly on historical themes. He later became a member of the Academy and wrote essays on art for his classes, some of which were published.

Schaller had two sons who also became artists: Eduard, a church and history painter, and Ludwig, a sculptor.