Otto Friedrich Theodor von Möller
Otto Friedrich Theodor von Möller | |
---|---|
Фёдор Антонович Моллер | |
![]() Self-portrait (late 1840s) | |
Born | 30 May 1812 |
Died | 21 July 1874 | (aged 62)
Education | Member Academy of Arts (1840) Professor by rank (1857) |
Alma mater | Imperial Academy of Arts |
Known for | Painting |
Awards | ![]() |
Otto Friedrich Theodor von Möller, or Fyodor Antonovich Moller (Russian: Фёдор Антонович Моллер; 30 May 1812 – 2 August 1874) was a Russian Academic painter of Baltic-German ancestry.
Biography[]
Born in Kronstadt, Saint Petersburg, he was the son of , also known as Anton Vasilievich Moller, a naval officer who later became Secretary of the Navy (1828–1836).[1] 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 Polish November Uprising, he took up drawing during his convalescence and decided to attend classes at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.[2]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/A_Kiss_by_Moller.jpg/215px-A_Kiss_by_Moller.jpg)
Once there, he became a favorite student of Karl Briullov.[1] He first exhibited in 1832 with a scene of the Battle of Ostrołęka. In 1835, he was awarded a gold medal for painting and resigned from the army. 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 "Academician" for his work "The Kiss".[1] While there, he also became a close friend of Nikolai Gogol and painted him several times, which portraits are among his best-known works.
After a brief stay in Russia in 1847, he returned to Rome, where he met Johann Friedrich Overbeck and the Nazarene movement. His work in that style, "Sermon of the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos", led to his becoming "Professor of Historical Painting" when he returned to Russia in 1856. That same year, he married Dorothea von Güldenstubbe, who was only sixteen.[2]
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.[2] His works include a series of paintings of Alexander Nevsky for the Grand Kremlin Palace and murals for Saint Isaac's Cathedral.[1]
He was suddenly taken ill while working on the Crucifixion in the village of Võnnu (Wendau). He died of pneumonia at the family estate on the island of Saaremaa.[2]
Gallery[]
John's Sermon on Patmos
Alexandr Nevskiy and papal legates
Assault of Kazan by Pugachev
Carrying the cross
Family of Ivan Kruglikov
Sleeping girl
Portrait of a boy
Portrait of Princess Louise Golitsyna
Portrait of Nikolai Gogol
Portrait of Fyodor Bruni
Bride
(Girl with a ring)
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Brief biography @ Russian Paintings.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Brief biography @ RusArtNet.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Otto Friedrich Theodor von Möller. |
- "An artist with wonderful talent and comfortable means" by Lyudmila Markina, from the Tretyakov Gallery magazine.
- Moller's portrait of Gogol a transcribed interview from Echo of Moscow
- Gogol's portrait @ Portraits of Russian Writers
- Members of the Imperial Academy of Arts
- Professors by rank of the Academy of Arts
- Imperial Academy of Arts alumni
- Awarded with a large gold medal of the Academy of Arts
- 1812 births
- 1874 deaths
- People from Kronstadt
- People from Petergofsky Uyezd
- Baltic-German people
- 19th-century Russian painters
- Russian male painters
- Russian portrait painters
- Religious artists
- Muralists
- Deaths from pneumonia