Brief Biography-Franz von Lenbach was born in Schrobenhausen in 1836. He spent time in the Polytechnische Schule in Augsburg before entering the Munich Academy under Karl Theodor Piloty. He travelled widely in Europe, painting en plein air, but critics attacked his work for being trivial. However, after settling in Munich, he found success when he switched to portraiture and received commissions from many notable figures, including Bismarck, who befriended him and became ennobled in 1882. He died in Munich in 1904. The Lenbachhaus Museum is at the house he built in Munich in 1891; It contains works by many German painters.