Albert Lang
German, 1847 - 1933
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Albert Lang was a German painter and graphic artist.
Lang was the son of the merchant Heinrich Lang and his wife Katharina Kaufmann. After leaving school, Lang began to study architecture in his home town. He later switched to the same subject at the Berlin Bauakademie, where he became a student of Heinrich Strack.
On a trip to Italy in 1869/70, which Lang undertook due to his failing health, he took a liking to painting. His friend, the painter Carl Schuch, encouraged him and introduced him to Alexander Strähuber as a pupil. Back from Italy, Lang settled in Munich and studied painting there. Lang was initially greatly influenced by Hans Thoma and Wilhelm Leibl in particular. Through Leibl, Lang not only came closer to the painting of Gustave Courbet and his surroundings, but also joined the circle around his friend Leibl.
Lang interpreted the direction represented here very vehemently and fought against the style represented by the history painter Karl Theodor von Piloty, among others, throughout his life. In 1873 Lang visited the academy in Karlsruhe for a few weeks, and at the beginning of 1874 he undertook a study trip through Italy together with Thoma. From March to May 1874, the two were in Rome, from where Thoma returned to Germany; Lang, however, remained in Florence for 14 years.
In Florence, Lang became friends with the painter Hans von Marées and joined the group of artists that had formed around Marées. It included Peter Bruckmann, Conrad Fiedler, Adolf von Hildebrand and A. Hollaender. Karl von Pidoll and Arnold Böcklin were close to this circle, but cannot be counted among them.
In 1881 Lang married Maria Francesca Ludovica Zampis in Florence. He had a son with her, the future painter Leonhard Lang. Lang returned to Germany in 1888 and settled in Frankfurt am Main. Hans Thoma lived and worked there in the meantime. Together they painted a fresco for the restaurant Zum Kaiser Karl, which was destroyed in the last war.
Lang moved to Munich in 1897, but soon began to have increasing problems due to his eye condition. His illness led to complete blindness after a few years. Albert Lang died in Munich on December 1, 1933 at the age of 86.