Karl von Piloty

Karl von Piloty (born October 1, 1826, Munich, Bavaria [Germany]—died July 21, 1886, Ambach, Germany) was the foremost representative of the Realist style of painting in Germany.

Piloty was the younger brother of Ferdinand Piloty, a noted lithographer. In 1840 he entered the Munich Academy as a student; two years later he studied under Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. The young painter gained membership in the Munich Academy with his impressive work Seni at the Dead Body of Wallenstein (1855); he became a professor at the academy in 1856. Piloty executed a number of mural paintings for the royal palace in Munich, and for Baron von Schach he painted the celebrated Discovery of America. In 1874 he was appointed keeper of the Munich Academy, and he was later ennobled by the king of Bavaria. Many of Piloty’s pupils became distinguished painters, including Hans Makart and Franz von Lenbach.