Children paddling by the rocks

Peter Fendi was born in Vienna on 4 September 1796 to Joseph and Elizabeth Fendi. His father was a teacher. He was crippled as a child after a fall but showed great skills as an artist from an early age. He enrolled at the St. Anna's Academy of Fine Art in 1810 at the age of thirteen, tutored by Johann Martin Fischer, Hubert Maurer and Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder . Fendi received a gold medal in 1821 and was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1836. As an art teacher his pupils included Carl Schindler and Johann Friedrich Treml.