August Weckesser

August Weckesser (28 November 1821, in Winterthur[1] – 11 January 1899, in Rome) was a Swiss painter, known primarily for history paintings.

He apparently developed an interest in art because, at the age of nineteen, he began taking lessons from the portrait and history painter David Eduard Steiner.

[2] The following year, he received his first major commission; painting decorations above the bookshelves at the Knabenschule Winterthur (now the Museum Oskar Reinhart [de]).

Always seeking to improve himself, he later made study trips to Antwerp, Paris and Rome, although he remained attached to Munich.

[4] Among his best known paintings are those depicting the death of Huldrych Zwingli, and Gertrud von Wart [de] begging Agnes of Austria to have mercy on her husband, who was implicated in an assassination plot.