Eduard Steinbrück

Carl Eduard Steinbrück (2 May 1802, Magdeburg - 3 February 1882, Landeck) was a German history painter and etcher; associated with the Düsseldorf school.

He eventually decided to follow his own inclinations and become a painter so, in 1822, he went to Berlin, where he worked in the studios of Wilhelm Wach.

In 1833, he felt the need for improving his work and returned to Düsseldorf, where he studied with Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow at the Kunstakadmie.

In the early 1840s, he had become interested in Catholicism when his friend, Ernst Deger, gave him a book by Clemens Brentano: Das bittere Leiden unsers Herrn Jesu Christi (The Bitter Suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ), which dealt with the life of the mystic, Anna Katharina Emmerick.

Over the next few years, he turned to painting idyllic works; featuring children, angels and fairies.