playing a harp Willmann was born in
Königsberg (Królewiec; today Kaliningrad),
Duchy of Prussia a fief of
Kingdom of Poland. He was educated by his father, the painter, Christian Peter Willmann. His family was impoverished Calvinist nobility. Michael went to the
Dutch Republic in 1650 to learn from the masters, and he was inspired by the works of
Rembrandt,
Peter Paul Rubens, and
Anthony van Dyck. For financial reasons he was unable to afford studying at the studio of a well-known painter. He therefore studied on his own, often copying works of the artists he was inspired on. His early style was particularly influenced by the style of Rembrandt. While he is often described as self-thought, he studied for a time under
Jacob Adriaensz Backer. After two years in the Netherlands, mostly spent in
Amsterdam, in 1653 Willmann returned to Königsberg, passed his master's examination, and began to travel. After visiting
Danzig (Gdańsk), 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 (Lubiąż),
Lower Silesia, dates from 1656. Leubus, a village in the Silesian part of the
Holy Roman Empire, would become the setting of much of Willmann's creativity. From 1657–58 Willmann was in
Berlin as the court painter of
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Willmann's workshop, modeled after those of the Dutch painters, quickly spread his fame. The extensive family studio included his son , his daughter Anna Elisabeth, and Anna Elisabeth's husband
Christian Neuenhertz and son . Willmann's studio also counted Johann Kretschmer from
Glogau (Głogów), from Breslau, the
Cistercian from
Grüssau, and Willmann's stepson
Jan Kryštof Liška. Willmann became the leading painter of Silesia through his expressiveness, technical dexterity, and speed. Willmann worked on orders from the patriciate of Breslau, as well as churches and monasteries throughout Silesia,
Bohemia and
Moravia. He received contracts for the Cistercian monasteries in Grüssau,
Heinrichau,
Kamenz,
Rauden, and
Himmelwitz. With the assistance of his students and assistants, Willmann produced 500 paintings and frescos during his life; about 300 or so have survived till modern day. Most of his frescos were created after the 1680s. On 26 November 1662 Willmann married Helena Regina Lischka (Liška) from Prague. In May 1663 he converted from
Calvinism to
Roman Catholicism and took the baptismal names
Leopold (after the
emperor) and
Lukas (after the
patron saint of painters). Willmann's prosperity allowed him in 1687 to acquire a manor near Leubus and sponsor the educations of his son and stepson in
Italy. Willmann was detailed in
Academia, the 1683 Latin edition of
Joachim von Sandrart's
Teutsche Academie der edlen Bau-, Bild und Malereikünste. Willmann died in
Leubus in 1706, and was buried in the abbey's crypt alongside the abbots. Because his son died shortly before his father, the studio passed to Willmann's stepson J. K. Liška until 1712, and to Willmann's grandson Georg Wilhelm Neunhertz until 1724, after which it closed. Willmann's house was destroyed in a fire in 1849. ==Post death==