Ferdinand Kobell (1740–1799) 

• Was a German painter copper engraver.
• His family was originally from Hesse.

• He initially studied law in Heidelberg, becoming a secretary to the court in 1760, but he soon turned his attention to painting.

• He was released from service, and obtained a scholarship to attend the Mannhiem Drawing Academy.

• In 1764, he started work as a theatrical painter and married Maria Anna Lederer.

• They had seven children, including Wilhelm von Kobell, who became a landscape, animal and battle painter. 

• In 1766, he was appointed court painter.

• To complete his training, he took an eighteen-month study trip to Paris.

• In 1794, when his court patron, Elector Charles Theodore decided to move from Mannheim to Munich, he followed him there.

• In 1798, he was named Director of the Palatinate Painting Gallery, which had been moved from Düsseldorf to Mannheim, but he died before he could return there and take up his post. 

• His etchings (about 300) were published by Frauenholz, in Munich (1809), as Œuvres complètes de Ferdinand Kobell.

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