 His first son, Wilhelm, was born in Saint Petersburg in 1802, and also grew up to become a painter.The other children were Gerhard (1806-1884), and Adelheid (1808-1874).During his career, he painted portraits of Caspar David Friedrich, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Gottfried Herder, August von Kotzebue, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Gottfried Seume, Ludwig Uhland, Zacharias Werner, Christoph Martin Wieland, Johann Carl Simon Morgenstern and other writers, artists and scholars of his time.