German painter and lithographer specializing in landscapes and genre motifs, who became a leader of the Swabian Impressionists.
From 1850 to 1857, Kappis trained as a lithographer in his uncle’s workshop. He also took drawing lessons and, from 1855 to 1860, attended classes at the Royal Art School in Stuttgart under Heinrich von Rustige and Bernhard von Neher. In 1860, he began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich under Karl von Piloty. While there, he made friends with fellow painters from Swabia, including Anton Braith, Ludwig Willroider, Friedrich Salzer and Jakob Grünenwald. In 1867, together with Braith and his friend, Christian Mali, Kappis made a study trip to Paris where he became involved with the Barbizon School. He made a return trip through Belgium and the Moselle Valley to Düsseldorf and spent some time working with the landscape painter Theodor Christoph Schüz. From 1871 to 1874 he lived with Braith and Mali in their so-called “Swabian Castle”.
He married in 1874, spent his honeymoon in the South Tyrol, and produced many paintings of the area around Starnberg and the Chiemsee. He was appointed a Professor at the Royal Art School at Stuttgart in 1880. This was followed by painting trips to a wide range of areas from Bavaria to the Baltic Sea. He retired in 1905, and died on 18 September 1914 in Stuttgart at age 78.

Link to Wikipedia biography