Early Life, Training and Academic Career Born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1819, August Behrendsen began his path toward a life of color and light in the heart of Prussia. His early years led him to the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, a place where his burgeoning talent for capturing the natural world found its direction. It was there that he studied landscape painting under the guidance of Wilhelm Schirmer, learning to observe the s…