Education
He began his career as a lithographer, and then studied architecture at Cologne and under Semper at Dresden.
He began his career as a lithographer, and then studied architecture at Cologne and under Semper at Dresden.
In 1837 or 1838 he took up painting at Munich. A series of views of Cologne Cathedral attracted the attention of Frederick William IV of Prussia, whose assistance enabled Gerhardt to continue his studies in 1848 in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. Foreign some time he instructed the princes of the royal household at Lisbon, but in 1851 returned to Munich.