Romantic winter landscape with figures resting near a water mill was executed in 1866 by important Munich landscape painter Heinrich Höfer (1825 - 1878). Heinrich Höfer, youngest son of a clothier, learned to Eisfeld/Thuringia the craft of porcelain and bowl painter. Already at the age of fourteen he had lost his father and had to contribute to the upkeep of the family. At 25, he moved out in the distance, to be a real artist, to Prague and Vienna, and finally in the art metropolis of Munich (1858). He made friendship here with the same age landscape painter Karl Millner, which led him in the landscape painting and brought close him his own role models Carl Rottmann and Eduard Schleich the Elder brought near.To collect subjects for his ideal landscapes, Henry undertook extensive and often troubled (foot) travels. They led him to the Bavarian foothills of the Alps, to Austria into Styria and the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. He covered his travel expenses as far as possible in order to portray local celebrities. Heinrich Höfer was an accomplished and renowned landscape painter whose works could also sell well abroad. He was admitted to the Munich Art Union. In 1867 he married the doctor´s daughter Mathilde Nenninger. From this marriage came two sons,He begun as portrait painter but he is known and recognized as primarily a landscape painter. He is from the School of Munich and the Chiemsee painters and was a member of the Artist Union in Munich. His works are still traded at good prices.His ideal landscapes contain mainly alpine and Chiemsee motifs, often in the mountains or Garmischer the glaciers of the Bernese Oberland background. In the middle distance rural scenes with cattle or horses and carts and small, detailed decorative figures. In his later years he preferred winter landscapes, often with shiny ice.Since 1858 he showed his works at exhibitions in Munich, Berlin, Dresden, Lübeck. His paintings respectively. found in numerous museums, including the City Museum of Bamberg (Winter Landscape), Silesian Museum in Wroclaw (Bayr. mountain village in winter ), in the Museum of Linz /Upper Austria and the Museum Biberach.From his travels, he brought numerous watercolors and drawings that served as templates. Many are found in the collection Maillinger Munich City Museum and the National Graphics Collection in Munich.

Provenance: noble European private collection.

Literature : Thieme/Becker "General Arists Lexicon" (in German), Leipzig, 1999.

Inscription: signed and dated (18)66,

Technique: oil on canvas, Magnificent old gold-plated frame .

Measurements: unframed w 22 " x h 28 " (56 x 71 cm), framed w 27 1/3 " x 33 1/4 " (69,5 x 84,5 cm).

Condition: original good condition.