Carl August Senff

Place: Halle

Born: 1770

Death: 1838

Biography:

Carl August Senff (1770–1838) was a Baltic German painter, engraver and teacher. He is best known for his etchings of famous German and Baltic German military figures in service to the Imperial Russian Army. He served as professor of drawing at the University of Dorpat. Senff was born in the village of Kreypau, Kingdom of Prussia. The son of Karl Friedrich Senff, a Protestant theologian, he had originally planned to study medicine at Halle. He later turned to art, studying under Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki in Berlin. He then went to Rome, where he became friends with Bertel Thorvaldsen. He returned to Dorpat in 1808, where he became a professor of drawing at the University of Dorpat and the chief observator for the Dorpat Observatory. He died in Dorpat in 1838.