The art academy in Königsberg was founded in 1845 on the initiative of August Hagen, Prussia's first professor of art history at the Albertus University there, and Theodor von Schön, the “Oberpräsident” (supreme representative of the Prussian Crown). After Berlin and Dusseldorf it was the third one in Prussia. This was preceded by the formation of an art association.
In the new academy building there were rooms for a permanent, public art exhibition in Königsberg for the first time.
With these activities the city achieved the role of an art centre again for the first time since Duke Albert in the 16th century.
The history painter Carl Ludwig Julius Rosenfelder (1813-1881) from Berlin was appointed the first director of the academy. Most of the other teachers also came from there. In Königsberg landscape painting already played a significant role at that time.
Illustration:
The old art academy in Königsberg. Lithography around 1850.