Carl Gustaf Hellqvist (15 December 1851 – 19 November 1890) was one of Sweden's most popular historical painters in the 19th century.

[1] He was born in Kungsör, between Arboga and Eskilstuna at Lake Mälaren, Sweden, where he grew up and went to school.

In 1864 Hellqvist started to study art at the Swedish Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, and in 1875 he was awarded the Royal Academy's highest prize for his painting " Gustav Vasa accuses Peder Sunnanväder and Mäster Knut in front of the chapter in Västerås" Swedish: Gustav Vasa anklagar Peder Sunnanväder och Mäster Knut inför domkapitlet i Västerås.

[1] In 1882 he and Julie Karoline Friederike Thiersch (1859-1933) were married and left for Paris, where Hellqvist earlier had been present at the Paris Salon with his oil painting "The Death of Sten Sture the Younger on the Ice of Lake Mälaren" (Swedish: Sten Sture d y:s död på Mälarens is).

In 1886 Hellqvist suffered from severe headaches which forced him to take a leave from his teaching at Königliche akademische Hochschule für die Bildenden Künste at Berlin.