Otto Friedrich Theodor von Möller

Estonian painter, decorator, teacher. Born at the Russian naval base of Kronstadt (1812) to Admiral Otto Anton von Möller (1764–1848) and his wife Julianne Charlotte Elisabeth von Nolcken (1787–1873). Studied at the Naval Academy (1817–26) and served in the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment (until 1835). Fought and wounded in Warsaw during the November Uprising (1830–31). Attended drawing classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1832–37) and the studio of Karl Brullov (1836–37). Lived and worked in Italy (1838–47), where he painted portraits of Nikolai Gogol (1840, 1841). Academician (1840), professor of history painting (1857). Married sixteen-year-old Dorothea Friederike Leonide (Lonny) von Güldenstubbe (1839–1908) at the age of forty-four in Ahrensburg in north Germany (1856). Had a daughter called Julie Emilie (Lilly) Friederike (1860), who married Baron Otto von Buxhoeveden (1877). Headed the school of drawing for day students (1857–60) and fellows (1858–61) of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. Decorated St Alexander’s Hall in the Grand Kremlin Palace (1860–66), Church of Christ the Saviour (1862) and the Lutheran church in the village of Wendau in Estonia (1871). Caught pneumonia while working and died on the Estonian island of Saaremaa (1874). Contributed to the exhibitions of the Imperial Academy of Arts (from 1832)