Early Life and Education Carl Friedrich Lessing, a renowned German historical and landscape painter, was born on February 15, 1808, in Breslau (now Wrocław), Poland. He was the grandnephew of the esteemed poet and dramaturge Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Lessing’s early education laid the foundation for his future artistic pursuits. He studied architecture at the Berlin Bauakademie in 1822, followed by enrollment at the königlich-preussische akademie der wissenschaften (royal prussian academy of the sciences) from 1823 to 1826. This formative period instilled within him a deep appreciation for b…