Johann Baptist Drechsler, son of the porcelain painter Josef Drechsler, was the founder of the Vienna School of Flower Painting. He worked as a flower painter at the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory from 1772 to 1782, and from 1787 he was the first professor of the newly founded class for flower painting at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. In 1807 he also became director of the academy. It was Drechsler's merit to lead Viennese flower painting from the decorative conception of the Baroque towards a detailed modern naturalism, which was schooled on the Dutch of the 17th and 18th centuries - especially on Jan vsn Huysum. In this way he also exerted a great influence on the scientific depictions of plants in the 18th century, which had played an important role in Vienna since the energetic support of the naturalist Nikolaus Joseph Jacquin by Emperor Franz Stephan of Lorraine. With his oil paintings executed in the most sophisticated technique, Drechsler was also represented in the Berlin Academy Exhibitions in 1787 and 1797. Today, Drechsler's paintings can be found in the Belvedere, the Wien Museum, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, the Princely Collections of Liechtenstein (Vaduz), the Hermitage in St. Petersburg as well as in museums in Budapest, Prague and Cambridge.
Literature
Marianne Frodl-Schneemann, Gerbert Frodl, Die Blumenmalerei in Wien, Vienna 2010; G.Frodl, Wiener Malerei der Biedermeierzeit, Rosenheim 1987, p.246; reference works: Thieme-Becker, Rudolf Schmidt