Michael Lucas Leopold Willmann (1630–1706),

• Was a German painter.
• The Baroque artist became known as the "Silesian Rembrandt", "Silesian Apelles" or "Silesian Raphael".
• Willmann was born in Königsberg, Duchy of Prussia.

• He was educated by his father, the painter, Christian Peter Willmann.

• Michael went to the Dutch Republic in 1650.

• For financial reasons he was unable to afford studying at the studio of a well-known painter. 

• While he is often described as self-thought, he studied for a time under Jacob Adriaensz Backer.

• After two years in the Netherlands, in 1653 Willmann returned to Königsberg, passed his master's examination, and began to travel.

• After visiting Danzig, Willmann went to Prague, where he stayed from 1653–55.

• He then spent about a year in Breslau (Wrocław).

• Willmann's first known painting, Landscape with John the Baptist, commissioned by Abbot Arnold Freiberger of the Abbatia Lubensis abbey in Leubus, Lower Silesia.

• From 1657–58 Willmann was in Berlin as the court painter of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.

• In 1660 Willmann returned to Leubus, which allowed him a large workshop.

• The extensive family studio included his son Michael Leopold Willmann the Younger, his daughter Anna Elisabeth, and Anna Elisabeth's husband Christian Neuenhertz and son Georg Wilhelm Neunhertz.

• Willmann's studio also counted Johann Kretschmer from Glogau, Johann Jacob Eybelwieser from Breslau, the Cistercian Jacob Arlet from Grüssau, and Willmann's stepson Jan Kryštof Liška.

• Willmann worked on orders from the patriciate of Breslau, as well as churches and monasteries throughout Silesia, Bohemia and Moravia.

• With the assistance of his students and assistants, Willmann produced 500 paintings and frescos during his life.

• In 1662 Willmann married Helena Regina Liška from Prague.

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