Wilhelm von Schadow

German Romantic painter noted as one of the leading painters of the Nazarene movement in Rome. Following the example of Johann Friedrich Overbeck and others, Schadow, originally a Lutheran, joined the Roman Catholic Church, and held that an artist must believe and live out the truths he essays to paint. He shone more as a teacher and mentor than as a painter. As an author, he is best known for his lecture, Ueber den Einfluss des Christentums auf die bildende Kunst (About The Influence of Christianity On The Visual Arts) (Düsseldorf, 1843), and the biographical sketches, Der moderne Vasari (Berlin, 1854).

He was the son of sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow, who gave him his first lessons in drawing. Through his father's second marriage he was the half-brother of painter Felix Schadow and socialite Lida Bendemann. He died on 19 March 1862 at age 73 in Düsseldorf.