Background
He received his first training from his father, a decorative painter.
He received his first training from his father, a decorative painter.
He came from a family of artists with a long history in Danzig. After further studies with the architecture painter Johann Adam Breysig, he went to Berlin in 1830 and enrolled at the Prussian Academy of Artist His first original work, the "Schützenfest westfälischer Bauern" (Westphalian Peasants Hunting Party) was painted in 1836 and bought by Joachim Heinrich Wilhelm Wagener, the Swedish-Norwegian Consul, from whose estate it entered the National Gallery (Berlin).
Under the influence of the Düsseldorf school of painting, he spent the years 1833-1841 producing works in the Romantic genre style.
After that, he devoted himself exclusively to portrayals of bourgeois and peasant life, focusing on Westphalia, Thuringia, and Hesse. His work is characterized by enamel-like coloring.
In 1870, he was afflicted by a debilitating nervous disorder that periodically prevented him from painting and eventually led to his death. Another brother, Hermann Meyerheim (f11860s), painted architecture and maritime scenes.
By 1855, he was a Regius Professor and a member of the Academies in Berlin, Dresden and Munich.