His father was the artist,
Ernst Kirchbach, who was in exile at the time of his birth. He received his first education at the
Dresden Academy (1878) then, as a student of the
Munich Academy, exhibited for the first time in 1881, in Munich and Berlin. In 1882, He won first prize for his painting "Duke Christoph the fighter, on the corpse of the last Abensberger" Between 1882 and 1883, he traveled to Italy, France, and England. When he returned, he took part in the painting of the
Schloss Drachenburg near Bonn, with scenes from the
Nibelungenlied. The primary image, "The Quarrel of the Queens" was his work. He then studied in Paris, with
Mihály Munkácsy, and created a monumental painting of "
Ganymede". Between 1884 and 1886, he was in Munich and created the colossal painting, "Christ Drives the Money Changers Out of the Temple." He was, however, primarily busy with illustrations, such as for the works of
Goethe and
Paul Heyse, ''
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, The Last Days of Pompeii'' by
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and various youth literature. In 1889 he was appointed as Head of Department at the
Städelschule (Institute of Frankfurt), where he worked seven years before returning to Munich in 1896 as a teacher of life drawing at the
Munich Academy. In his last years, he painted mostly portraits. ==Notes==