Background
Möller was born in Kronstadt and was the son of Berend Otto von Möller, Imperial Russian minister of the Navy.
Möller was born in Kronstadt and was the son of Berend Otto von Möller, Imperial Russian minister of the Navy.
He began his career in the military, finding time to study art in his spare time, and took part in the repression of the November Uprising in Poland in 1830-1831. In 1835 he left the military to become a full-time painter. He studied under Karl Bryullov in Saint St. Petersburg and in 1839 went on a study trip to Italy.
In 1856, he moved to an estate where he kept his large collection of art, on Saaremaa island in what is today Estonia.
In 1857 he was made a professor and awarded the Order of Saint Vladimir. Möller"s probably best known paintings are his portraits of Russian writer Nikolai Gogol.