Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen (6 February 1772 – 27 March 1820) was a German painter, noted for his

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

s and history paintings. He was a professor at the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German language, German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institutio ...

and a member of both the Prussian and Russian Imperial Academies of Arts. His twin brother, Karl von Kügelgen, was also a painter of note.

Biography

He was born at Bacharach am Rhein. After leaving school in 1789, he studied painting in

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

. Beginning in 1791, he worked in Bonn, where he painted portraits of Elector Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria, minister Ferdinand August von Spiegel zum Desenberg, and the Count of Waldstein. Afterwards, he and his brother undertook an educational journey to Rome, Munich and Riga, which was financed by Archduke Maximilian In 1800, he married Helene Marie Zoege von Manteuffel (1774–1842); from a noble Baltic-German family with roots in the 14th century. They had three children together. His first son, Wilhelm, was born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in 1802, and also grew up to become a painter. The other children were Gerhard (1806–1884), and Adelheid (1808–1874). During his career, he painted

s of Caspar David Friedrich,

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

, Johann Gottfried Herder, August von Kotzebue, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Gottfried Seume, Ludwig Uhland, Zacharias Werner, Christoph Martin Wieland, Johann Carl Simon Morgenstern and other writers, artists and scholars of his time. After moving to Dresden, Kügelgen's villa "Gottessegen" (God's Blessing) became a meeting place for artists and adherents of early

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. Caspar David Friedrich was also a student and friend. In 1820, he was killed by a thief while on his way into Dresden from his studio in the suburb of

Loschwitz Loschwitz is a borough (''Geography and urban development of Dresden#City structuring, Stadtbezirk'') of Dresden, Germany, incorporated in 1921. It consists of ten quarters (''Stadtteile''): Loschwitz is a villa quarter located at the slopes nor ...

. He is buried in the Old Catholic Cemetery, Dresden. The asteroid 11313 Kügelgen is named after him and his son Wilhelm.Entry on the website of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab
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Selected portraits

File:Gerhard von Kügelgen 001.jpg, Friedrich von Schiller File:Herder by Kügelgen.jpg, Johann Gottfried Herder File:Goethe Kügelgen.jpg,

File:Gerhard von Kügelgen portrait of Friedrich.jpg, Caspar David Friedrich File:Elizaveta Alexeevna by Kügelgen (1800s, Winnyzja).jpg, Princess Louise of Baden File:Wieland by Kügelgen.jpg, Christoph Martin Wieland

References

* * Dorothee von Hellermann: ''Gerhard von Kügelgen (1772–1820). Das zeichnerische und malerische Werk''. Reimer, Berlin 2001,

External links

Entry for Gerhard von Kügelgen
on the Union List of Artist Names
The Kügelgenhaus, Dresden, established in Kügelgen's former home
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kugelgen, Gerhard von 1772 births 1820 deaths Burials at Old Catholic Cemetery, Dresden People from Mainz-Bingen German romantic painters 19th-century painters of historical subjects