Otto Friedrich Theodor von Möller

Otto Friedrich Theodor von Möller, or Fyodor Antonovich Moller (Russian: Фёдор Антонович Моллер; 30 May 1812, Kronstadt - 2 August 1874, Saaremaa) was a Russian Academic painter of Baltic-German ancestry.

Biography

He was the son of Anton Berend Otto von Möller, also known as Anton Vasilievich Moller, a naval officer who later became Secretary of the Navy (1828-1836). At the age of five, he was enrolled at the cadet school, where he remained until he was 14, then served in the Semyonovsky Regiment. After being wounded in the November Uprising, he took up drawing during his convalescence and decided to audit classes at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.

Once there, he became a favorite student of Karl Briullov. He participated in his first exhibition in 1832 with a rendering of the Battle of Ostrołęka. In 1835, he was awarded a gold medal and resigned from the service. He received another gold medal in 1837.

After graduating in 1838, he went to Italy to complete his studies. He continued to send paintings home and, in 1840, was named an "Academician" for his work "The Kiss". While there, he also became a close friend of Nikolai Gogol and painted several portraits of him, which are among his best-known works.

After a brief stay in Russia in 1847, he returned to Rome, where he became acquainted with Johann Friedrich Overbeck and the Nazarene movement. His work in that style, "Sermon of the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos", won him the title "Professor of Historical Painting" when he returned to Russia in 1856. That same year, he married Dorothea von Güldenstubbe, who was only sixteen.

Back in Saint Petersburg, he devoted himself to teaching and managing a pension fund for artists at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. His works include a series of paintings of Alexander Nevsky for the Grand Kremlin Palace and murals for Saint Isaac's Cathedral.

He was suddenly taken ill while working on a rendering of the Crucifixion in the village of Võnnu (Wendau) and died of pneumonia at the family estate on Saaremaa.