Louise Kugler

Louise Kugler (10 October 1811 – 6 September 1884) was a German painter and poet.

Biography 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. 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. 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". The illustrations attracted much comment when they appeared at the "Academic Exhibition" in Berlin and were in the end purchased by the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (born a Prussian princess). The empress in due course made a gift of the illustrations to the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg who in 1855 had a coloured-in version created, which was considered a great treasure. Despite the publicity this brought her, by this time Louise Kugler had left Berlin and was for most purposes quickly forgotten there. In 1872 she produced another little volume, "Die vier Jahreszeiten".

During her final years she developed a good friendship with the poet Amalie "Molly" Murtfeldt with whom she conducted an at times lively correspondence. Unable to live purely on the proceeds of her poetry, she also undertook some private tutoring and received a certain amount of discrete financial support from the Gildemeisters, who remained supportive till the end.

Following several years of illness, Louise Kugler died in Bremen on 6 September 1884.