(Stronach near Dölsach 1835–1921 Munich)
“Leseunterricht”, signed, dated Defregger 1889, oil on panel, 32.5 x 24.6 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection Germany.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Hans Peter Defregger, Defregger 1835–1921, Rosenheim 1983, p. 328.

Franz von Defregger is often regarded as the main representative of Alpine genre painting of the Munich School. Born in Tyrol, he came to painting after a few detours. In 1860 he attended the preparatory class of the Royal School of Arts and Crafts in Munich and in the following year he passed the entrance examination to the Royal Academy of Arts, which he did not enter until 1864. After a stay in Paris, where he continued his artistic training at the École des Beaux-Arts, he moved permanently to Munich. He subsequently specialised in portraits, depictions of scenes from the Tyrolean freedom fights and everyday Tyrolean life, especially scenes of children.
In this lot, Defregger shows the loving scene of a girl who is probably teaching her little brother to read. She is holding the book in her lap and the boy is standing next to her, his gaze fixed tensely on the reading in front of him. The children are depicted in everyday traditional dress, the details are carefully executed and the materiality meticulously rendered.