Background
His student days were spent in Belgium, under several masters, and there he emerged as a vigorous painter given to romantic subjects, theatrical and even melodramatic. In 1845, at Rome, he observed the work of Johann Friedrich Overbeck and Peter von Cornelius, who were often referred to as the "German Pre-Raphaelites," and discovered, in consequence, that his own style was much too florid. Accordingly he simplified it, and it lost in the process much of its robustness. Occasionally he rediscovered his old power, as in Christ Washing Peter's Feet (London, National Gallery). This painting, done in striking but harmonious colors and lines, and imaginatively composed, dates from 1852, but it was altered several times before 1980.