Carl Julius Milde

After a financially difficult youth, his desire to improve himself led to art lessons with Gerdt Hardorff and Siegfried Bendixen and a lasting association with the artistic family of Johannes Michael Speckter.

From 1830 to 1832, he returned to Italy, visiting every major city, but staying longest in Rome, where he came under the influence of Friedrich Overbeck and the Nazarene movement.

In 1835, he completed a series of frescoes at the Mayor's official residence, which had been started by his friend Erwin Speckter but left incomplete at the latter's early death.

He also pursued his scientific hobbies, documenting and cataloguing items for the Lübecker naturhistorische Museum, where he served as a curator for thirty years.

He concentrated on the rescue and restoration of Medieval interior pieces and stained glass, laying a foundation for the collection of altarpieces at St. Anne's Museum.