Ernst Meyer (painter)

In 1812, when it became clear that he was interested in art rather than business, his father refused to continue supporting him and sent him to join his mother's new family.

[2] There a business associate of his cousin, the wholesale grocer and economic writer Mendel Levin Nathanson [da], took him under his wing, helped him audit classes at the Royal Academy and found him a position in the workshop of artist C.A.

[3] His goal, however, was to be a history painter and, in 1819, he competed for a gold medal with a work depicting Joseph and Pharaoh.

He then went to Munich, where he came under the influence of Peter von Cornelius and became so involved in mastering his Catholic-oriented style that he decided not to return to Denmark.

[citation needed] In 1841, he began to suffer from serious episodes of what was probably rheumatoid arthritis (although some sources suggest it may have been syphilis) and he made an extended visit to the spa at Gräfenberg, Bavaria, in an effort to restore his health.

By this time, his affliction had worsened to the point that he had to walk with crutches and his hands were too deformed to paint in oils.