Franz Eybl entered the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts at the age of ten. He first attended the 'Engraving and Ore Cutting School' under Josef Klieber, and from 1817 the class of landscape painting under Josef Mössmer. His teachers were Johann Baptist Lampi, head of the class for history painting, Franz Caucig, director of the school for painting and sculpture, and above all Johann Peter Krafft. Among his fellow students were Josef Danhauser and Johann Matthias Ranftl. In 1843 the artist became a member of the Academy, in 1853 curator at the Imperial Picture Gallery, and in 1867 teacher at the gallery's restoration institute. Franz Eybl devoted himself to portraiture for a long time. Already during his studies, he created numerous miniature and watercolour portraits of actors for the theatre enthusiast Josef Ritter von Franck. He also made a name for himself as a lithographer, creating more than 400 works in this technique. Commissioned trips took him to Hungary, where he lithographed well-known personalities. From 1826 he worked for the publication 'Lithographische Kopien von Originalhandzeichnungen berühmter alter Meister aus der Sammlung S. kaiserl. Hoheit des durchlauchtigsten Erzherzog Carls von Österreich'. From the 1930s he increasingly turned to genre painting. A series of exquisitely beautiful works, often showing landscapes, interiors and people from the Salzkammergut, while also sharing an allegoric character, are the result. The masterful rendering of surfaces and a particular sensitivity in the use of colour are characteristic of Eybl’s painting.