Overview
Born in the Bohemian town of Kratzau to a poor painter and mason, Führich's interest in art began in his father’s workshop where he practiced the fundamentals of drawing while tending to a flock of sheep. In 1816, his father sent him to Josef Bergler at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts. The master teacher was so impressed with the works of the young student that he procured funds from Count Christian Clam-Gallas who, having seen two of Führich's pictures exhibited, eagerly sponsored him the following year at the Prague Academy.
At the Academy, Führich developed a love for the ideas of the Romantic movement, taking inspiration from the German Renaissance, particularly the drawings of Albrecht Dürer. His illustrations for Tieck’s Genoveva emerged as a great artistic success, earning him a grant bestowed by Prince Metternich to study abroad in Italy. In 1827 Führich arrived in Rome, where he moved in the circle of German artists that included Joseph Anton Koch. This connection proved so fruitful and inspiring that Führich soon joined the Brotherhood of Saint Luke and identified himself completely with the Nazarene movement and its artistic and religious ideals and practices. From 1827 to 1829 under Overbeck’s supervision, Führich completed three frescoes for the Tasso Hall in the Casino Massimo.
Returning to Prague in the summer of 1829, he began work on The Triumph of Christ, now in the Raczynski Palace at Berlin. In 1834 he settled in Vienna, eventually acquiring a professorship at the Academy of Vienna in 1841. All the while, he continued a steady output of religious work in Vienna which became known throughout Europe including the monumental pictures of the church of St Nepomuk and a vast series of wall paintings for the Lerchenfeld church. Raised to the order of knighthood by Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1872, he was subsequently called Ritter von Führich. On his 75th birthday, in honor of his contributions, Joseph Ritter Führich was given the key to the city of Vienna, where he died in 1876.