Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld was a German Romantic painter, engraver and lithographer.
Background
Schnorr von Carolsfeld was born in Königsberg, the son and pupil of the artist Veit Hanns Schnorr von Carolsfeld. In 1804 he was registered as a student in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Heinrich Friedrich Füger, who had become acquainted with his father in 1801.
Career
At the age of 16 he moved to Vienna, where he lived for the rest of his life. He became part of the group of Academy students round Friedrich Overbeck, who were looking for new paths beyond the strongly formal Classical ideals of the Academy. His first patron was Duke Albert von Sachsen-Teschen.
Schnorr von Carolsfeld maintained close relations with the Catholic Romantics Zacharias Werner and Friedrich von Schlegel.
In 1818 his bid to obtain the directorship of the Vienna Academy failed because of the opposition of Prince Metternich, the curator of the Academy, who mistrusted Schnorr von Carolsfeld because of his artistic and personal closeness to the artists of the Lukas group. He did however obtain a position from Archduke John of Austria, and provided the artworks for Brandhof, the Archduke"s refurbished country house, up to 1828.
Schnorr von Carolsfeld undertook study trips to Southern Germany, Switzerland and Paris (1834), and to Northern Germany (1837). Thanks to the Archduke he came into contact with the Austro-Hungarian Imperial family, who gave him commissions.
From 1841 he was the curator of the Imperial gallery in the Belvedere Palace.
He died in Vienna in 1853. A. Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld in: A.
Membership
In 1835, thanks again to the Archduke, and also thanks to the fact that Romantic painting was beginning to become popular throughout Germany, he became after all a member of the Academy in Vienna.