August Georg Wilhelm Pezold was born on 9 August 1794, in Rakvere, as the son of a county\ndoctor who had immigrated to Estonia from Germany. He lost his mother at a young age and his\nfather at the age of 9. Young August grew up in a friendly foster home with Count Rehbinder, in\nUdriku Manor, where a boy his age was his playmate. Together with the landowner\u2019s children, the\nyoung Pezold received an \u2018encyclopaedic\u2019 education thanks to the countess\u2019 peculiar teaching\nmethod. Mrs Rehbinder was particularly keen on teaching languages. In 1808, the 14-year-old boys\nwere sent to Tallinn Cathedral School, where August learned fortification among other subjects.\nTwo years later, the young artist began his medical studies at the University of Tartu, but spent more\nand more time drawing under the guidance of Karl August Senff. Pezold became convinced that he\ncould only be happy as an artist. Together with a new friend, Otto Friedrich Ignatius, he undertook a\nstudy trip to Germany that lasted seven years. While away from home, they also travelled in\nAustria, Italy, France, and Switzerland.<\/p>\n
In the spring of 1821, August Pezold travelled hundreds of kilometres on horseback to Paris, from\nthere he travelled to London and returned to Estonia in the autumn. His grandmother and\nstepmother were living in Viljandi at the time, and the artist came straight here. Between 1821 and\n1836 Pezold worked as a portrait painter in Riga, Viljandi, St Petersburg, Tartu, and V\u00f5nnu. He met\nhis future wife, Caroline Tiling, in Viljandi, and the two married in 1825, in St Petersburg. Being a\nteacher in St. Petersburg did not suit him, and misfortunes in the family (the death of his two sons\nand the illness of his wife) brought him back to Livonia.<\/p>\n
In 1833, Pezold painted a portrait of Dr Fr. Faehlmann. The artist\u2019s frequent relocations and\ncommuting were linked to commissioned portraits, both in the city and in the countryside.\n\nBetween 1837 and 1842 Pezold worked as a teacher in Tallinn. In 1839 he was awarded the title of\nfreelance artist by the St Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts for his portraits. At the same time, he\nalso became particularly active in painting Estonian people. His pictures of Estonian folk costumes\nbecame very popular and were used as signs during fairs to attract buyers. In 1842, the artist moved\nto St Petersburg, where he remained for the rest of his life, working as a drawing teacher at the\nuniversity. In St Petersburg, Pezold met Johann K\u00f6ler, who had gone to the Russian capital in 1846\nwith only 75 kopeks in his pocket.<\/p>\n
In 1856, August Pezold applied for the title of academician, but was denied it for unknown reasons.<\/p>\n
He died on 12 March 1859, in St Petersburg.<\/p>\n
In his work, Pezold was a realist who sought an unadulterated naturalism. His works are\ncharacterised by a small format that creates an intimate and homely atmosphere. Pezold\u2019s oeuvre\nwas inspired by the approach and style of Biedermeier art. The most important and best part of\nPezold\u2019s oeuvre consisted of pencil portraits (Eesti S\u00f5na, 1944).<\/p>\n
August Pezold\u2019s son, Leopold Diedrich Ernst von Pezold (born in Viljandi in 1832), published his\nfather\u2019s travel diaries The Years of Travel of Three Estonian Artists in 1889\u20131890, supplemented\nwith his own comments. According to the son, his father loved the Estonians\u2019 national\ncharacteristics, and although he was of Baltic German origin, he portrayed the local people with\ngreat affection. The two surviving drawings with Viljandi motifs date from 1822. The artist has\ndepicted Juhan Taniel, the blind former stableman of Viljandi Manor, in a watercolour from 1831\nwith a beggar\u2019s bag and a cane, a young boy begging beside him.<\/p>\n
In the painting depicting a figure standing with his back to the viewer in the Castle Hills, it can be\nseen how the Viiratsi side of Lake Viljandi was much wider at that time. The work is a stylistically\npure example of Romanticism in Baltic German art (Vallikivi, 2020).<\/p>\n
Two Viljandi motifs in ink, Blind beggar with a boy, a view from Viljandi Castle Hill and a view\nfrom Viljandi Castle Hill to the lake.<\/p>\n