Brief Biography-Johann Köler was born to a peasant family in Viljandi, southern Estonia. After studying locally and in the Latvian town of Võnnu, he made his way to Saint Petersburg, where, in 1848, he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts. He did not win funding for travelling; however, in 1857, he won a two-year scholarship for the Society for Fostering Arts. He ventured to Paris and the Northern countries before going to Italy in 1858, and in Rome, he painted for four years. His style changed from the strict academic tendencies of the Saint Petersburg Academy to influences acquired in Paris and Rome, perhaps while painting natural landscapes. When he returned to Saint Petersburg in 1861, he tutored the daughter of Tsar Alexander II and lectured at the Academy until 1870. He was known to be influential in the escalation of the Estonian Nation Awakening, a period considered the beginning of independence that eventually came about in 1918. He died in Saint Petersburg in 1899.