Amerling, born in Vienna as the son of a gold and silver wire drawing artist, first occupied himself with colouring maps and etchings in watercolour. In 1815, he entered the Academy of Fine Arts and attended the engraving school under Josef Klieber. One year later he became a member of Hubert Maurer’s class for 'Historische Zeichnungsgründe', which was subsequently led by Carl Gsellhofer from 1819. From 1824 to 1826, he studied under the historical painter Josef Bergler at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Afterwards, he travelled to London with the aim of becoming acquainted with the famous portrait painter Sir Thomas Lawrence, and to Paris. After his return to Vienna, where he extended his skills by studying English and French painting, he received the Reichel Prize for "Dido at the Stake" in 1829. In the following years Amerling undertook numerous journeys. Especially Italy - mainly Rome -, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, England and Scotland, Constantinople and Athens, Scandinavia, Egypt and Jerusalem were his stops. While there are still some historical and religious paintings as well as some heroic landscapes in his early work, the portrait soon became his genre of choice. As an extremely prolific artist Amerling belonged to the most sought-after Viennese portrait painters up to the middle of the century. Court, aristocracy and the upper middle classes were his patrons.
Literature
L.A. Frankl, Friedrich von Amerling. Ein Lebensbild, Wien 1889; L.Hevesi, Österreichische Malerei im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1903, S.196ff; G.Probszt, Friedrich von Amerling. Der Altmeister der Wiener Porträtmalerei, Zürich/Leipzig/Wien 1927; Nachschlagewerke: Thieme-Becker, Müller-Singer, Boetticher, Bénézit, Busse Nr.01351