Gerhard von Kügelgen

Born: 1772, Bacharach am Rhein (Holy Roman Empire)
Died: 1820, Loschwitz (near Dresden)
Movements:
Romanticism

German painter. Twin brother of Carl von Kügelgen. Born to Franz Ferdinand Anton von Kügelgen (1727–88) and Maria Justina Hoegg (1744–1805) in the Palatinate town of Bacharach am Rhein (1772). Attended the Jesuitenkolleg in Bonn (1786–89) and studied painting under Januarius Zick in Coblenz (1789–90) and Christoph Fesel in Würzburg (1790–91). Moved to Bonn (1791), where he painted portraits of Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria and Count Ferdinand August von Spiegel zum Desenberg und Canstein (1791). Awarded a scholarship by the elector of Cologne to Rome (1791), where he studied Renaissance painting and attended Karl Ludwig Fernow’s lectures on archaeology and the history of art (1791–95). Travelled via Munich to Riga (1795) and Reval (1798), where he was engaged to teach painting to Helene Marie (Lilla) Zoege von Manteuffel (1774–1842). Invited by Paul I to St Petersburg (1798), where he painted portraits of Paul I (1799), Paul I and the imperial family (1800), Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna in mourning (1800s), Alexander I (1801) and Empress Elizabeth Alexeyevna (1801–03). Married Helene Marie Zoege von Manteuffel (1800), who gave birth to his children Wilhelm (1802), Gerhard (1806) and Adelheid (1808). Elected to the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg (1804) and an honorary member of the Königliche Akademie der bildenden Künste in Berlin (1804). Left Russia and visited Paris (1804). Settled in Dresden (1805), where he lived in a house called Gottessegen at 13 Hauptstraße, which became a meeting place for Romantic artists and writers (now the Museum der Dresdner Romantik). Visited Weimar (1808–09) and Berlin (1817). Painted portraits of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1808–10), Christoph Martin Wieland (1809), Johann Gottfried von Herder (1809), Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1809), Theodor Körner (1813), Duke Alexius Frederick Christian of Anhalt-Bernburg (1813), Caspar David Friedrich (c. 1815), Queen Louise of Prussia (1816), Prince Albert and Princess Louise of Prussia (1817), Prince Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1817) and Count August Neidhardt von Gneisenau (1817). Full member of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Dresden (1811), professor (1814), professor emeritus (1818). Killed by a robber while returning to Dresden from his studio in Loschwitz and buried at the Alter Katholischer Friedhof in Dresden (1820).

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