Franz Xaver Winterhalter was a German painter and lithographer. He trained as a draughtsman and lithographer in the workshop of Karl Ludwig Schüler and then went to Munich in 1823.

In 1825 he began a course of study at the Akademie and was granted a stipend by Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Baden. The theoretical approach to art of the Akademie under the direction of Peter Cornelius was unfamiliar to him and he was required to paint in a popular style.

He found stimulus for his future development in the studio of Joseph Stieler, a portrait painter who was much in demand and who derived inspiration from French painting. Winterhalter became his collaborator in 1825. From Stieler he learned to make the heads of figures emerge from shadow and to use light in the modelling of faces.

Winterhalter was a very talented academic artist. He became best known for his portaits, accepting commissions from many of the most elite and upper-class of society. He had a talent that allowed him to create sensitive, lasting impressions, with realistic likenesses of his sitters.