At the age of 15, Eduard Schleich becomes a student at the Munich Academy in the history painting class, which he leaves, however, after just a short time. Under the influence of Carl Rottmann, Thomas Fearnley, Christian Ezdorf and Christian Morgenstern, the artist creates, in the following years, many landscape paintings which he paints from memory and from sketches that he has drawn during his extensive walks in the Alps. The early, broad-format paintings, whose motifs are taken from the immediate vicinity of Munich, are still very dark in their use of colour. Together with Christian Morgenstern, Schleich travels to Upper Italy in 1843, although this does not yet have any noticeable influence on his painting. His style does not change until around 1848, when the artist begins to look more closely at 17th century Dutch painting. His pallet of colours becomes warmer and the colour and composition are strongly influenced by Rubens. In 1851, the artist travels with Carl Spitzweg and other artists to Paris and London, where he visits the World Exhibition. After his return, his works reflect the sketchy style of the Barbizon School, with which he became familiar in France. The following years see the creation of Schleich's famous light-filled depictions of the Upper Bavarian lake areas, which lead to the artist enjoying a considerable reputation during his own lifetime and being honoured as the founder of the Munich Landscape School. The artist is then entrusted, in 1869, with the organisation of the International Art Exhibition of Munich. He makes his last journey to 1872, to Rome. The famous painter dies when he is just 64 years old, in 1874 in Munich.