PREYER, Johann Wilhelm

German painter. He studied at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie (1822-31) and was recognized as a master of genreGLOSSARYIn a broad sense, the term is used to mean a particular branch or category of art; landscape and portraiture, for example, are genres of painting, and the essay and the short story are genres of literature. and flower painting by 1830. In 1835 he studied the Dutch masters at The Hague and Amsterdam; he also went on two study trips to Italy (1840 and 1842). He continued training in Munich and gradually began to expand his early, small-scale landscapes in the manner of Jan Brueghel the Elder by adding still-life motifs. By the mid-1840s he had settled on the formula that won him success: small-scale, pure still-lifes, usually of fruit. Works such as Fruit on a Porcelain Dish (1832; Nationalgalerie, Berlin) moved beyond the constraints of the traditional vanitasGLOSSARYA painting (or element in painting) that acts as a reminder of the inevitabiliry of death, and the pointlessness of earthly ambitions and achievements. Common vanitas-symbols include skulls, guttering candles, hour-glasses and clocks, overturned vessels, and even flowers (which will soon fade). The vanitas theme became popular during the Baroque, with the vanitas still life flourishing in Dutch art. still-life to the joy of pure decoration.

His work is notable for its precise drawing, scrupulous detail, fresh colour and brilliant enamelGLOSSARYColoured glass in powder form and sometimes bound with oil, which is bonded to a metal surface or plaque by firing.-like texture. He also sometimes used trompe l'oeil effects. His Still-Life with Fruit (1869; Art Museum, Milwaukee) exemplifies the artist's abiding fascination with close, natural observation. The painting glows with a jewel-like finish enhanced by brilliant glazes. This kind of exquisite craftsmanship established his reputation as the foremost technician of the Düsseldorf school.

His lifelong dedication to improving his work never wavered, though his late years may have witnessed a decline in his powers of concentration. Preyer, whose daughter Emilie Preyer (1849-1930) was a still-life painter, was only 1 m tall, as was his brother, the landscape painter Gustav Preyer (1801-1839).