Louise Kugler

Louise Kugler (10 October 1811 – 6 September 1884) was a German painter and poet. Charlotte Louise Kugler was born into a leading commercial family in Stettin, at that time entering the sixth year of just over seven under French occupation. Her father, Johann Georg Emmanuel Kugler (1777-1843), was a prominent city businessman, councillor, and consul. He was also a part-time poet. Her mother, Sophie Dorothea Eleonora Sternberg (1781-1854), was a preacher's daughter. Both her parents had a deep interest in the arts: writers, musicians, and artists were frequent and welcome guests in the family home. She had at least two elder brothers, the younger of whom, Franz Theodor Kugler (1808-1858), would later achieve a level of eminence as an art historian and cultural administrator for the Prussian state. Both siblings received art lessons in Stettin which took them beyond the level of mere dabbling. She subsequently moved with her brother to live in Berlin where Louise studied with Carl Begas who since 1826 had been a professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts. From whim she learned, in particular, the art of portraiture. Later her artistic focus switched to the (less potentially remunerative) subjects of flowers, illustrations, and arabesque designs. Her brother, meanwhile, increasingly switched away from painting and towards the academic study of Art History, as a more secure means of obtaining a secure income. He obtained his doctorate in 1831. Franz Kugler's assessment of his sister's progress as an artist was cautious: "There is still something dilletantiste in this work, but it is certainly captures a lively sense of poetry and is executed with a strikingly fine sense of style in the way it uses colour and form". When father died in 1843 Louise Kugler moved in to live with her mother, who by this time was also living in Berlin. Her brother Franz, who by now had a wife and children of his own, lived close by and was evidently seen as the head of the wider family.