Franz Sigrist

1727 Altbreisach – 1803 Vienna

1744 was the year Franz Sigrist began his studies at the Academy in Vienna, which at that time received very little support from the court, as a consequence of which it was forced to reduce the amount of teaching and ultimately to close down completely for a number of years. From 1754 to 1763 the artist was active in Augsburg, where he mostly supplied designs for prints that revealed the influence of South German Rococo artists such as Paul Troger and Josef Ignaz Mildorfer. In 1764 Sigrist returned to Vienna, subsequently producing numerous altar pieces and wall paintings. His ceiling fresco in Eger (Erlau) with depictions of the sciences is regarded as a major early classicist work.