Christian Adolf Schreyer was a German painter.
He was born at Frankfurt-am-Main. He first studied at the Städel Institute in his native town, and then in Stuttgart and Munich.
Schreyer first accompanied Prince Thurn and Taxis through Hungary, Wallachia, Russia and Turkey. Then, in 1854, he followed the Austrian army across the Wallachian frontier. In 1856 he went to Egypt and Syria, and in 1861 to Algiers. In 1862 Schreyer settled in Paris but he returned to Germany in 1870 and settled in Cronberg, near Frankfurt, where he died.
Schreyer was especially esteemed as a painter of horses, peasant life in Wallachia and Moldavia and of battles. His work is particularly remarkable for its excellent equine draughtsmanship and for the artist’s power of observation and forceful statement. Schreyer was highly appreciated by French and American collectors.
Schreyer is represented in the following collections: the Raven Gallery, Berlin; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
