Georg Friedrich Kersting

Georg Friedrich Kersting (31 October 1785 - 1 July 1847) was a German painter, best known for his Biedermeier-style interior paintings and his association with fellow artist Caspar David Friedrich. Kersting came from a large and impoverished family in Güstrow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the son of a glazier. He studied at the progressive Copenhagen Academy between 1805 and 1808, where he adapted the visual clarity of the contemporary Danish school and was awarded a silver medal in draughtsmanship. Kersting moved to Dresden in 1808, joining the Lützow Free Corps - a voluntary force of the Prussian Army - in 1813. He moved to Poland in 1814 to work as a drawing master, and returned to Meissen in 1818, where he married and had four children. That year he became the chief artist at a Biedermeier porcelain manufacturer in Meissen and remained there until life's end.