Karl von Kügelgen

Johann Karl Ferdinand von Kügelgen (6 February 1772, in Bacharach – 9 January 1832 [O.S. 28 December 1831], in Tallinn), also known as Carl Ferdinand von Kügelgen was a landscape and history painter, a Russian court and cabinet painter in St. Petersburg, a member of the Royal Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, and a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin.

His twin brother Gerhard von Kügelgen was active as a portrait and history painter in Dresden. In his school days in Bonn, during which he lived with his brother, he studied at the first Bonn University of Philosophy. Ludwig van Beethoven was among his classmates. In 1790 he traveled to the area of Frankfurt and Würzburg to learn painting. In 1791 he and his brother received a scholarship to Rome from the Elector of Bonn Archduke Maximilian Franz of Austria. In 1796 von Kügelgen traveled with Andreas Romberg to Vienna, and later to Riga. In 1807 he married Emilie Zöge von Manteuffel. His oldest son, Konstantin von Kügelgen (1810–1880), was also a landscape painter.