Jakob Christoph Miville

[2] He found himself drawn to Rome, where he made contact with other German-speaking artists there, including Johann Christian Reinhart and Joseph Anton Koch, who had a major influence on his style.

[1] Upon returning to Switzerland his paintings received good reviews but, due to the unsettled political situation, failed to achieve economic success.

[2] After two years, he returned to St. Petersburg to take a position as a drawing teacher, at a private boarding school operated by Pastor Johannes von Muralt [ru], a fellow Swiss emigrant.

In 1819, he was able to sell a series of forty paintings on Crimean motifs to Countess Anna Vladimirovna Bobrinskaya [ru].This financed a second stay in Rome, from 1819 to 1821.

[3] Despite this, he failed to achieve financial stability until 1826, when he took a position as a drawing teacher at the non-profit Gesellschaft für das Gute und Gemeinnützige.