Origins
The Artist Louis Braun (1)
Louis Braun (Schwäbisch Hall 1836 – 1916 Munich) was a history painter.
He received his first art lessons from his brother Reinhold. After studying in Stuttgart, Braun went to Paris, where he studied under Horace Vernet, who was an acclaimed master of history painting and created large-format canvases for the History Museum in Versailles. It was there that Braun was commissioned to paint Napoleon III’s Entrance into Paris. Braun’s further training resulted in ever-larger history paintings. As a war artist he took part in the German-Danish (1864) and Austro-Prussian Wars (1866) .
His artistic gifts, outstanding training, mastery of technical problems, organisational talent and rapid output enabled him to create panorama paintings at two-year intervals, and he amassed a considerable fortune as a result. By the late 19th century he was the foremost panorama painter in Germany. While the panorama paintings are the highlight of Braun’s oeuvre, they also marked the end of history painting as a genre.
