Karl Hampeln

Karl von Hampeln, also known as Carl or Charles, was an Austrian watercolor and miniature painter, graphic artist, portraitist, engraver, and lithographer active in Russia and Vienna.
Some sources mention that he was born in 1808 in Saint Petersburg.

Biography

Karl von Hampeln was born deaf and mute into an Austrian family residing in Russia. With the scholarship granted by Empress Maria Feodorovna, he was first admitted to a school for the deaf in Vienna and later studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. During the Congress of Vienna in 1815, he was introduced to Tsar Alexander I, who financed his continued stay in Vienna.
In 1816, he received a second-class court award as an Engraver. In 1817, he returned to Russia, and after 1825, he became a drawing teacher at the St Petersburg College for the Deaf. He gained recognition in the Russian capital as a portraitist. After a temporary short stay in London, he spent his final years in Vienna.