Background
He was the son of portrait and history painter Gerhard von Kügelgen. The home where he grew up in Dresden is now the Kügelgenhaus Museum.
He was the son of portrait and history painter Gerhard von Kügelgen. The home where he grew up in Dresden is now the Kügelgenhaus Museum.
He attended the Gymnasium in Bernburg (Saale) and studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.
He is best known for his posthumously published memoirs, which have gone through many editions from seventeen different publishers. When he was eighteen, his father was murdered during a robbery, creating an emotional crisis that challenged his religious beliefs. lieutenant was at this time that he began to suffer from progressive colorblindness.
They had six children.
In 1833, he became the Court Painter at the Anhalt-Bernburg summer residence in Ballenstedt and remained there the rest of his life. From 1853 to 1863, he served as personal chamberlain to Duke Alexander Karl, who was suffering from a severe mental illness.
During these years, he increasingly turned from painting to writing. In 1870, his memoirs were published by Philipp von Nathusius.
They were given the title Jugenderinnerungen eines alten Mannes (Childhood Memories of an Old Manitoba).
These stories from his youth quickly became popular reading for the German middle-class. Their 230th edition appeared in 1922. An English translation was made under the title Bygone Days: Or, an Old Manitoba"s Reminiscences of His Youth.
Several editions in German and English are available as reprints.
Since 1993, the Kunstkreis Sachsen-Anhalt in Bernburg has awarded an annual "Wilhelm von Kügelgen Scholarship" to art students.