Background
He was the son of Johann Werner Scheffer (1730-1799) and Catharine Maria Pfluger (1731-1799) and a pupil of Johann Friedrich August Tischbein.
He was the son of Johann Werner Scheffer (1730-1799) and Catharine Maria Pfluger (1731-1799) and a pupil of Johann Friedrich August Tischbein.
They had three sons who survived to adulthood: the portrait painter Ary Scheffers (1795-1858), the journalist and writer Karel Arnold Scheffer (1796-1853) and the painter Hendrik Scheffer (1798-1862). The family moved in 1798 from Dordrecht to The Hague, in 1801 to Rotterdam and in 1803 to Amsterdam. Scheffer produced several large historical works, and some portraits, including one of King Louis Bonaparte of Holland.
In 1808 he became court painter of Louis Bonaparte in Amsterdam, but he died already a year later at the age of 44 or 45.
He was buried 5 July 1809 in the Zuiderkerk.