Overview
The artistically gifted son of a pewter caster, Johann Richard Seel attended school
at Elberfeld until 8th grade, subsequently joining a literary circle that included the German philosopher Friedrich Engels, the history painter and eventual Düsseldorf Academy director, Friedrich Roeber, and the German poet Adolf Schults. In 1837, Seel began his training at the Royal Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf under the tutelage of Karl Ferdinand Sohn. He showed exceptional talent early on; while still a student, he made a name for himself as a portraitist, painting in the tradition of the Düsseldorf School, and excelling in psychological depth and aesthetic brilliance.
In 1840, during a year of voluntary military service in Berlin, Seel channeled his left-leaning political views, creating his most famous satirical caricature, The German Michel. In 1845, the artist traveled to Paris, where he worked in the studio of Paul Delaroche, the most important historical painter of the time, and encountered the works of Eugene Delacroix, which made an indelible impression on him.
Returning to Elberfeld in 1848 with an offer of support from his patron Ludwig von Lilienthal, Seel made portrait painting the economic basis of his artistic work, remaining for the rest of his life firmly rooted in the art and literary scene of the Elberfeld bourgeois. After a prolonged illness, Seel died in 1875 in the town of his birth.