13 Works, Today, February 6th. is artist Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #037

Kügelgen, Gerhard von

Detail; Ariadne auf Naxos

Walraff-Richartz Museum, Köln

Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen (6 February 1772 – 27 March 1820) was a German painter, noted for his portraits and history paintings. He was a professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and a member of both the Prussian and Russian Imperial Academies of Arts. 

Gerhard von Kügelgen  (1772–1820)

Double portrait: Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen and Ferdinand Carl von Kügelgen, c. 1816

Oil on canvas

44,5 x 35,5 cm

Beethoven House Bonn

His twin brother, Karl von Kügelgen, was also a painter of note.

Kügelgen, Gerhard von (1772-1820) Fernow, Carl Ludwig (1763-1808), c. 1806/07 Oil on canvas 66.5 x 52 cm New Masters Gallery	Gerhard von Kügelgen (1772–1820) Friedrich Schiller, c. 1808 and 1809 Oil on canvas Height: 73 cm (28.7 in); Width: 61 cm (24 in) Goethe House, Frankfurt am Main, Germany	Gerhard von Kügelgen (1772–1820) Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna, Princess Louise of Baden (1779-1826), c. 1801 and 1802 Oil on canvas Regional Art Museum, Vinnytsia
Gerhard von Kügelgen 1772-1832 Frau Bertha Schroeter, daughter of Postmaster Mittag, Dresden, c.1772-1832 Oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm, Private collection	Gerhard von Kügelgen 1772-1832 Portrait of a young lady Oil on canvas 65.5 x 53.5 cm Private collection	Gerhard von Kügelgen Maria Feodorovna Weimar, Schlossmuseum

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

Gerhard von Kügelgen  (1772–1820)

Dorothea, princess of Lieven, c. March 1801

Oil on canvas

Height: 140.5 cm (55.3 in); Width: 104 cm (40.9 in)

Private collection, France

Katharina Alexandra Dorothea Fürstin von Lieven (17 December 1785 – 27 January 1857), was a Russian Empire noblewoman of German ethnicity and the wife of Prince Christoph Heinrich von Lieven, who served as the Russian ambassador to London between 1812 and 1834. She became an influential figure among many of the diplomatic, political, and social circles of 19th-century Europe. More on Dorothea

Attributed to Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen (German, 1772–1820) An allegory of Victory , 1812–1813 Oil on Canvas 75 x 60 cm. (29.5 x 23.6 in.) Private collection	Gerhard von Kügelgen (1772–1820) Allegory of Grief, c. 1815 Oil on canvas Height: 75 cm (29.5 in); Width: 60 cm (23.6 in) Deutsches Historisches Museum

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 in 1802, and also grew up to become a painter. The other children were Gerhard (1806-1884), and Adelheid (1808-1874).

Franz Gerhard Von Kügelgen

Andromeda

Oil on canvas

Old National Gallery, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Andromeda is the daughter of the Aethiopian king Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia. When Cassiopeia's hubris leads her to boast that Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids, Poseidon sends a sea monster, Cetus, to ravage Aethiopia as divine punishment. Andromeda is stripped and chained naked to a rock as a sacrifice to sate the monster, but is saved from death by Perseus.

 

As a subject, Andromeda has been popular in art since classical times; it is one of several Greek myths of a Greek hero's rescue of the intended victim of an archaic hieros gamos, giving rise to the "princess and dragon" motif. From the Renaissance, interest revived in the original story, typically as derived from Ovid's account. More on Andromeda

Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen (German, 1772–1820)

Klio , c. 1813–1813

Oil on Canvas

75.5 x 60.5 cm. (29.7 x 23.8 in.)

Private collection

Klio, in Greek mythology, was one of the nine Muses, patron of history. Traditionally Klio, after reprimanding the goddess Aphrodite for her passionate love for Adonis, was punished by Aphrodite, who made her fall in love with Pierus, king of Macedonia. From that union, in some accounts, was born Hyacinthus, a young man of great beauty who was later killed by his lover, the god Apollo. More on Klio

During his career, he painted portraits of Caspar David Friedrich, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 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. Caspar David Friedrich was also a student and friend.

Kügelgen, Gerhard von

Ariadne auf Naxos

Walraff-Richartz Museum, Köln

Ariadne, in Greek mythology, daughter of Pasiphae and the Cretan king Minos. She fell in love with the Athenian hero Theseus and, with a thread or glittering jewels, helped him escape the Labyrinth after he slew the Minotaur, a beast half bull and half man that Minos kept in the Labyrinth. Here the legends diverge: she was abandoned by Theseus and hanged herself; or, Theseus carried her to Naxos and left her there to die, and she was rescued by and married the god Dionysus. More on Ariadne

In 1820, he was killed by a thief while on his way into Dresden from his studio in the suburb of Loschwitz. He is buried in the Old Catholic Cemetery [de].

The asteroid 11313 Kügelgen is named after him and his son Wilhelm. More on Franz Gerhard von Kügelgen

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