Josef Schretter

In 1867, he began an apprenticeship with a carver in Thaur, but quit after only a year, to attend an arts and crafts school associated with the Bundesrealgymnasium Innsbruck [de].

From 1874 to 1878, he was enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, where his primary instructors were Christian Griepenkerl, August Eisenmenger and Karl von Blaas.

[1] He passed the teachers' examination for freehand drawing, returned to Innsbruck in 1879, and spent two years teaching at the Bundesrealgymnasium.

Between 1881 and 1885, he made study trips to several locations in Italy, and to Tunis, where he devoted himself to painting Orientalist scenes.

He then settled permanently in Innsbruck, but travelled extensively throughout Northern Europe, to execute works on commission; portraying numerous members of the German, Danish, Dutch and Russian nobilities.