Stephan Dorfmeister
Stephan Dorfmeister or, in Hungarian, Dorffmaister István (1729 – 29 May 1797) was a painter of German origin who worked primarily in Burgenland and Transdanubia (now part of Hungary). Biography A birth year of 1729 is assumed, based on parish registers from the city of Ödenburg. Hungarian sources indicate that the year was 1725. He was born in Vienna, the eldest of the five children of Johann Christof Georg Dorfmeister (1705–1789) and his wife Elisabeth, née Millner. His youngest brother was the Austrian sculptor, . From 1751 to 1758, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, where his instructors were Paul Troger, the Rector of the academy, and , a fresco painter from Silesia. From 1769, he referred to himself as a "foreign" member of the academy, although there are no supporting documents. After acquiring an expertise in fresco painting, c.1760, he received an order from the Provost of the Premonstratensian abbey in Gschirna for painting the monastery church. In 1761, he worked at the new monastery in Türje. Around 1762, he moved to a home near Ödenburg, but never became a Bürger (citizen) there; possibly to avoid compulsory military service. During this time, he married Anna Franz