KOGELGEN, GERHARD AND CARL VON, twin brothers and distinguished painters, were born at Bacbarach on the Rhine, in 1772. Their father was Hof-kammerrath, exchequer counsellor, in tho service of the elector of Cologne, who iu 1791 sent the twins to complete their studies in Rome after they had made sufficient progress at home. Gerhard painted history and portrait ; and Carl, Gerhard was Induced to try hi. fortune at St. Petersimire, whither he was soon followed be his brother Carl : they both met with great mimes", and mauled two sisters, of a noble family of Curland ; but Gerhard, after a few p ars, removed in 1801 to 'hearten ; Carl remained at St. Peters burg, where he was appointed court painter. Get-herd had established himself and obtaine t a high reputation at Dresden, where he held the appointment of professor of painting at the Academy, when bits career was suddenly cot off In a most melancholy manner. lie was brutally robbed and murdered on the road from Pillnits to Dresden, not far from the capital, in 1820. It was a common highway robbery ; the miserable wretch who committed the deed was not in the least aware of who his victim was. Ile was a private soldier, and his singular cupidity was the cause of his detection. He even drew off the boots of Kilgelgen, and his afterwards taking these boots to be mended to the very lulus who had made them and who knew them, is said to have been the cause of his detection. Gerhard Ktigelgen's works are of a very
unpretending character; in most of them an abstract religious senti ment is the chief and characteristic motive; in execution they are careful, delicate, and somewhat formal, yet pleasing and impressive. He delighted in compositions of one or at most very few figures, often three-quarter lengths of the size of life. His biography, by F. Hasse, was published at Leipzig in 1824.
Carl Ktigelgen painted many landscapes, and executed many draw ings of the scenery of Russia, both in the northern and southern pro vinces. lie made two journeys in the Crimea for the express purpose of painting its scenery ; the first journey was made in 1804 by desire of the emperor Paul, the second by that of the emperor Alexander in 1806. Thirty oil-paintings and sixty sepia drawings, part of the fruits of the second journey, were purchased by the emperor, and placed together in a hall in Kammoi Ostrof. In 1818 Alexander sent Kilgel gen for a similar purpose into Fianland, of which country ho painted fifty-five pictures, which also were purchased by the emperor. Kilgel gen executed in all 171 pictures and 290 finished drawings. He died at Revel in 1832. His Life is in the' Neuer Nekrolog der Deutsehen, x. 1.