Background
Johann Köler was born as the seventh child to a peasant family in Lubjassaare farmstead in Wast (present-day Ivaski), Viljandi County on March 8, 1826.
From 1848 to 1855 Johan Köler studied drawing and painting at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.
From 1848 to 1855 Johan Köler studied drawing and painting at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.
Johann Köler was born as the seventh child to a peasant family in Lubjassaare farmstead in Wast (present-day Ivaski), Viljandi County on March 8, 1826.
Despite the poverty of the parents Köler managed to attend the elementary and the district schools in Fellin (present-day Viljandi), Livonia. Then he attended a workshop of master painters in Võnnu.
From 1848 to 1855 Johan Köler studied drawing and painting at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.
In 1846, Köler travelled to St. Petersburg to work as a sign writer, where his talent was soon discovered.
During 1857 Köler travelled to Paris via Berlin, later returned to Germany, then travelled to the Netherlands and Belgium. In 1858, he travelled across the Alps to Milan, Geneva, Florence and Rome. In Rome during 1859 he presented his composition "Christ on the Cross".
Answering the call of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Köler returned to the city in 1861.
From 1862 to 1874 he was a teacher of the Grand Duchess Maria Aleksandrovna, the daughter of Czar Alexander II. In 1869 - 1870, he worked as a lecturer at the Academy. From 1886 to 1889 Köler worked in Vienna, Nice, and Paris.
The peak of Johann Köler's career coincided with the rise of the Estonian national awakening and he used his position in the imperial court to promote the cause of the Estonian people. He also was a friend of the journalist Carl Robert Jakobson, one of the authors of the idea of the Estonian self-determination.
From 1891 to 1893 Köler was the president of the Society of Estonian Literati.
He died on April 22, 1899 in Saint Petersburg.
Monks Curse Lorelei
Portrait of Hugo Treffner
Portrait of the Artist's Father
Girl at the Spring
Ketraja
Herakles toob Kerberose põrguväravast
Christ of the Cross
Eve after Falling Into Sin
Portrait of Dr. Philipp Karell, Emperor's Physician
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald reading The Kalevipoeg in manuscript
Ema portree
Self portrait
The portrait of Nikolai Petrovitsch Semjonovs’ daughter
Faithful Guardian
Eve with a Pomegranate
The Artist's Birthplace
