Wilhelm Schmiedeberg

Wilhelm Schmiedeberg (25 April 1815 – 1865) was a German lawyer and portraitist. It is likely that he would now be forgotten, were it not for the album he compiled during his time as a student at Königsberg with the somewhat fanciful title "Blätter der Erinnerung" ("Pages of memory"), which was filled with watercolour portraits of student contemporaries.

Life Eduard Friedrich Wilhelm Schmiedeberg's father, Martin Friedrich Wilhelm Schmiedeberg, was a pharmacist and, after 1814, the proprietor of Königsberg's "Crowns Pharmacy" ("Kronenapotheke"). His mother, born Johanna Wilhelmina Collins, was the daughter of a banker: Edvard Collins was the Königsberg branch director for the Prussian State Bank, as it became known later.

Wilhelm Schmeideberg the son was baptised on 14 May 1815 in the Lutheran church at Sackheim a quarter in the eastern part of central Königsberg. It is recorded in the Deanery records of the Philosophy faculty that he was awarded a doctorate in his absence on 15 June 1838. Unusually for this period, he was awarded the doctorate without being called upon to submit an oral defence of his inaugural dissertation, the title and subject of which are not known. |group="n" The letter of recommendation from Rosenkranz, dated 28 April 1838, makes it clear that by this time Schmiedeberg was already qualified for government service and could be recommended as a talented artist. at Königstraße 60, a house in the city centre inherited from his father. He lost the ability to walk, probably while still in his early middle age.

It is highly probable that he died in Königsberg in 1865.

Water colourist Wilhelm Schmiedeberg's lasting legacy remains the portraits he painted The surviving works are mostly of fellow students from his time at university. The portraits focus on the faces of the sitters: he avoided painting people's hands.