Christian Seybold
Illustration — Self-portrait (1761) • Illustration — Portrait of an Old Woman Christian Seybold (19 March 1695, Neuenhain, Bad Soden - 29 September 1768, Vienna) was a German painter in the Baroque style. He is best known for his detailed, realistic character heads and portraits (over two dozen of himself), which sometimes stood out from the idealized ones preferred at that time. Most of his works can be classified as tronies.
Also recorded as Christian Seibold · Christian Seybald · Seibolds · Seybold
Christian Seybold

Christian Seybold · Museum Liechtenstein · Public domain
- Born
- 1695 · Neuenhain.
- Nationality
- Germany
- Occupation
- painter
- Fields
- portrait
- Movements
- Baroque
- Languages
- German
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Documentary summary
Illustration — Self-portrait (1761) • Illustration — Portrait of an Old Woman Christian Seybold (19 March 1695, Neuenhain, Bad Soden - 29 September 1768, Vienna) was a German painter in the Baroque style. He is best known for his detailed, realistic character heads and portraits (over two dozen of himself), which sometimes stood out from the idealized ones preferred at that time. Most of his works can be classified as tronies.
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Note VALÉORINE
Christian Seybold (1695–1768) was a painter, of German nationality. The painter was born in Neuenhain and died in Vienna.
Christian Seybold held the position of court painter and worked in Vienna. The painter was associated with Baroque.
The work spans portrait. Languages used include German. Works are held at Belvedere, Hermitage Museum and Kunsthistorisches Museum, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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wikidata · Q1081904 · wikipedia · Christian Seybold
In this article
Biography
Biography
The recorded working language is German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Vienna. Positions recorded include court painter. Work by Christian Seybold is recorded in the collections of Belvedere, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Hermitage Museum, National Museum in Warsaw and Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Little is known about his childhood and education. He was one of eleven children in a family that originally came from Oberursel. At some unknown date, he moved to Vienna. There, in 1715, he married and became a father only three weeks later. Both his wife and child died within the following two years: his son Johann Michael only 23 days after his birth. His wife Elisabeth died 26 October 1717. Within less than seven months, he remarried. His second wife, Susanna, had two children who would live into their adulthood. In 1745 he received an appointment as court painter to King Augustus III, who was also the Elector of Saxony, in Dresden, Four years later, he was named to fill the same position at the court of Empress Maria Theresa. The style for his detailed character heads was heavily influenced by Balthasar Denner. For his self-portraits, he was primarily influenced by Jan Kupecký and Rembrandt. One of his first datable portraits (after 1723, before 1728) is of the imperial counsellor, Count Johann Adam von Questenberg; a prominent patron of the arts. Today his paintings are widely scattered, from the Louvre to the Uffizi and the Hermitage.
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
The authorities additionally record the headings Christian Seibold, Christian Seybald, Seibolds, Seybold and Seyboldt. His recorded language was German.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1695
Christian Seybold born at Neuenhain.
1768
Christian Seybold died at Vienna.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Neuenhain.
Birth place
Vienna.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Christian Seybold”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1081904: Christian Seybold
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Biographical notes @ Hessian Biography.
- 2.Cat. Gemäldegalerie Dresden, (Harald Marx), Alte Meister, 1992, pp. 349, 351
- 3.Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 34 79 Seybold, Christian Karl Weiß ADB:Seybold, Christian
Bibliography printed in the source article · 6
- Harald Marx: "Realismus und "choix des attitudes". Zu einem Selbstbildnis von Christian Seybold", in: Ars auro prior: Studia Ioanni Białostocki sexagenario dicata, (1981), pp. 583–587
- Klára Garas: "Christian Seybold und das Malerbildnis in Österreich im 18. Jahrhundert", in: Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts, #34 (1981), pp. 113–137
- Gabriele Wiechert: "Christian Seybold, Wiener Hofkammermaler am Hofe Maria Theresias", In: Hessische Familienkunde Vol.33, 2010. (Online)
- Lilian Ruhe, "… Seybold hat bekannter maßen mehr als eine Schilderweise". De hofschilder Christian Seybold (1695–1768). Portretten en tronies tussen Porenmalerei, rembrandtisme en rococo, PhD-Dissertation Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen 2018
- Lilian Ruhe, ‘Rembrandt between Danube and Elbe. Christian Seybold (1695-1768) and his Self-Portrait with the Wienerisches Diarium under a Magnifying Glass’, in: Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts, 125 (2020), pp. 151–175
- Lilian Ruhe,‘Rembrandt and Balthasar Denner through the Eyes of Christian Seybold (1695–1768). The Iconography of a Self-Portrait and Porentronies Revisited', in: Ferdinand Kühnel, Nedžad Kuč, Marija Wakounig (Eds.), Framing History in East-Central Europe and Beyond. Politics - Memory - Discourse. (Europa Orientalis, 21/22 (2022), hrsg. vom Institut für Osteuropäische Geschichte an der Universität Wien), Vienna 2022, pp. 47–70
References
Citations
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General reference
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