Background
As son of the librarian Christian Joseph Jagemann, he was brother to the actress Karoline Jagemann.
As son of the librarian Christian Joseph Jagemann, he was brother to the actress Karoline Jagemann.
Karoline was mistress to Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who allowed Ferdinand to train with Johann Heinrich Tischbein. He was also a student of the court-painter Georg Melchior Kraus in Weimar and Füger in Vienna. He then went on study trips to Paris and Italy.
He was well known as a portraitist, drawing Friedrich Schiller on his deathbed.
He died as a professor at the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule in Weimar, and his eulogy was given by Goethe (whom he had painted in 1805, 1806, 1817 and 1819).