Painting in the grand style owed its origin to the personal tastes of the king and to the great tasks to which it was occasionally set; independent of princely favour, realistic art found its patrons amongst the South German nobility and, at a later date, in the circle of the Munich Art Union, and seems the logical continuation of that military painting which, at the opening of the century, had its representatives in Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Munich. The motley swarm of foreign soldiers which overran the soil of Germany incited Albrecht Adam, Peter Hess, Johann Adam Klein, and others, to represent what they saw in a fashion which was sincere and simple if it was also prosy. And when the warlike times were over it was quite natural that some of the masters who had learnt their art in camps should turn to the representation of peasant life, where they were likewise able to find gay, pictorial costumes. _Wilhelm Kobell_, whose etchings of the life of the Bavarian people are more valuable than his battle-pieces, was one of the first to make this transition. In 1820 sturdy _Peter Hess_ painted his "Morning at Partenkirche," in which he depicted a simple scene of mountain life--girls at a well in the midst of a sunny landscape--in a homely but poetic manner. When this breach had been made, Bürkel was able to take the lead of the Munich painters of rustic subjects. [Illustration: _Hanfstaengl._ HEINRICH BÜRKEL.] _Heinrich Bürkel's_ portrait reveals a square-built giant, whose appearance contrasts strangely with that of his celebrated contemporaries. The academic artists sweep back their long hair and look upwards with an inspired glance. Bürkel looks down with a keen eye at the hard, rough, and stony earth. The academic artists had a mantle--the mantle of Rauch's statues--picturesquely draped about their shoulders; Bürkel dressed like anybody else. No attribute is added which could indicate that he was a painter; neither palette, nor brush, nor picture; beside him on the table there is--a mug of beer. There he sits without any sort of pose, with his hand resting on his knee--rough, athletic, and pugnacious--for all the world as if he were quite conscious of his peculiarities. Even the photographer's demand for "a pleasant smile" had no effect upon him. This portrait is itself an explanation of Bürkel's art. His was a healthy, self-reliant nature, without a trace of romance, sentimentality, affected humour, or sugary optimism. Amongst all his Munich contemporaries he was the least academic in his whole manner of feeling and thinking.