Carl Joseph Begas

Carl Joseph Begas studied at Berlin University of the Arts. Frédérique Émilie Auguste O'Connell, Wilhelm Amberg and Clara Wilhelmine Oenicke are recorded as having studied under Carl Joseph Begas. The recorded working language is German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Cologne and Berlin. Employment is recorded with Berlin University of the Arts. Positions recorded include court painter. Work by Carl Joseph Begas is recorded in the collections of Städel Museum, Hermitage Museum, Bavarian State Painting Collections, Alte Nationalgalerie and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

He was born in Heinsberg. His family (originally "Begasse") came from Belgium, in the region near Verviers and Liège. He was the third child of Franz Anton Begasse (1764–1842), a judge, and his wife, Susanne née Hoffstadt. In 1802, they moved to Cologne, where he received his first artistic training from the miniaturist, Franz Katz. Later, he studied at the Lyceum in Bonn with Clemens August Philippart (1751–1825). In 1813, he went to Paris, where he became a student of Antoine-Jean Gros. While there, shortly after the Battle of Paris, his talent was noticed by King Friedrich Wilhelm III, who bought one of his works and became his patron. He remained in Paris until 1821. His first works dealt exclusively with Christian themes. A scholarship made it possible for him to live in Italy from 1822 to 1825. There, he became associated with the Nazarene movement, and first began to sign his name as "Begas". In 1825, he moved to Berlin and married Wilhelmine Bock, daughter of the Master Builder, Johann Ludwig Bock. After that, he devoted himself primarily to portraits. Their home soon became a meeting place for Berlin's "high society". The following year, he was named a Professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts; a position he held until his death. Joseph Petzl was one of his best known students. Around 1828, he came under the influence of the Düsseldorfer Malerschule and began to create works with historical and literary references, but always went back to portrait painting, largely for economic reasons. When the civilian order, Pour le Mérite, was established in 1843, he was commissioned to paint portraits of the medals' recipients, including the sculptors, Christian Daniel Rauch and Johann Gottfried Schadow, the philologist, Jakob Grimm, and the naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt. In 1846, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV appointed him Court Painter. He died in Berlin in 1854, at the age of sixty, after returning from a visit to Rome. Four of his sons also became artists.

• Illustration — Portrait of the Begas family Begas had eight children: • Oskar Begas (1828–1883) portrait painter and professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts. • Alfred Begas (1830–1860) officer. • Reinhold Begas (1831–1911) sculptor, head of the Siegesallee project. Sculpted the Neptune Fountain (Berlin). • Hellmuth Begas (1833–1893) officer. • Veronika Begas (1834–1844) • Adalbert Begas (1836–1888) painter, specializing in genre scenes. • Susanne Begas (1839–1848) • Karl Begas (1845–1916) sculptor.