Peter Cornelius. Peter von Cornelius was a German painter.
Cornelius was born in Düsseldorf. From the age of twelve he attended drawing classes at the Düsseldorf Academy.
His father, who was superintendent of the Düsseldorf gallery and professor at the academy, died in 1799, after which Cornelius supported his family by his work as a portraitist and illustrator. In a letter to the Count Raczynski he wrote: It fell to the lot of an elder brother and myself to watch over the interests of a numerous family.
It was at this time that it was attempted to persuade my mother that it would be better for me to devote myself to the trade of a goldsmith than to continue to pursue painting-in the first place, in consequence of the time necessary to qualify me for the art, and in the next, because there were already so many painters. My dear mother, however, rejected all this advice, and I felt myself impelled onward by an uncontrollable enthusiasm, to which the confidence of my mother gave new strength, which was supported by the continual fear that I should be removed from the study of that art I loved so much.
His earliest major work was the decoration of the choir of the church of St Quirinus at Neuss, commissioned by Canon Wallraff of Cologne in 1803. In 1809 he began a series of drawings illustrating Goethe's Faust, the first part of which had been published the previous year. For these Cornelius emplo
Cornelius was born in Düsseldorf. From the age of twelve he attended drawing classes at the Düsseldorf Academy.
His father, who was superintendent of the Düsseldorf gallery and professor at the academy, died in 1799, after which Cornelius supported his family by his work as a portraitist and illustrator. In a letter to the Count Raczynski he wrote: It fell to the lot of an elder brother and myself to watch over the interests of a numerous family.
It was at this time that it was attempted to persuade my mother that it would be better for me to devote myself to the trade of a goldsmith than to continue to pursue painting-in the first place, in consequence of the time necessary to qualify me for the art, and in the next, because there were already so many painters. My dear mother, however, rejected all this advice, and I felt myself impelled onward by an uncontrollable enthusiasm, to which the confidence of my mother gave new strength, which was supported by the continual fear that I should be removed from the study of that art I loved so much.
His earliest major work was the decoration of the choir of the church of St Quirinus at Neuss, commissioned by Canon Wallraff of Cologne in 1803. In 1809 he began a series of drawings illustrating Goethe's Faust, the first part of which had been published the previous year. For these Cornelius emplo
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