Kügelgen was Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin and member of the Imperial Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.

Kügelgen trained in painting under Januarius Zick in Koblenz. From 1791, he lived in Bonn and painted portraits of the Elector Maximilian Franz of Austria, the Archbishop of Cologne Ferdinand August von Spiegel zum Desenberg and Count Waldstein. After that, he went to Rome using a grant from the Cologne Elector Maximilian Franz of Austria. He then sojourned in Munich and Riga. Kügelgen married in 1800 Helene Marie Zöge of Manteuffel from Eigstfer in Livonia, one of his pupils, whom he had met in Reval in 1798.

Kügelgen lived and worked from 1798 to 1802 in St.Petersburg ( his famous portrait of the family of Paul I is is in the Pavlovsk palace by St.Petersburg). Also in St. Petersburg was born in 1802 his eldest son, Wilhelm von Kügelgen, who was also portraitist and history painter. Town house of Kügelgen in Dresden was an important meeting place for artists of the early Romantic period (today Kügelgenhaus - Museum of Dresden Romanticism). Kügelgen was a teacher of Caspar David Friedrich, amongst others. He taught at the Art Academy in Dresden and was a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts, as well as the Imperial Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. As an important portrait painter and organizer of artists meeting in his residence in Dresden, Kügelgen exerted a lasting influence on the art of painting in Dresden.

Literature: "General Artist´s Lexicon " by Thieme/Becker, Leipzig, 1999.

Inscription: on the back of original frame - two old labels, first one with indistinctly inscription in pencil; second one with the name of a frame producer in Dresden.

Technique: oil on canvas. Luxuriousy original period frame.

Measurements: unframed w 21 1/4" x h 27 1/3" (54 x 69,5 cm), framed w 28 3/4" x h 34 3/4" (73 x 88,5 cm ).

Condition: in good condition, original canvas is slightly crackled, only the edges of the canvas were relined. Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin and member of the Imperial Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.