Berlin, 4 April 1818 – Berlin, 11 July 1890
Carl Constantin Heinrich Steffeck was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor, recognized among the most accomplished animal painters of nineteenth-century Europe, particularly for his depictions of horses and dogs.
Born into a cultivated bourgeois milieu, he was the son of a gentleman of independent means with a strong interest in the arts. While still a student at the Gymnasium, Steffeck attended classes at the Prussian Academy of Arts, entering in 1837 the master class of Franz Krüger, the leading painter of equestrian subjects in Berlin. He subsequently worked in the studios of Carl Joseph Begas. A formative stay in Paris in 1839 brought him into contact with the teaching of Paul Delaroche and the work of Horace Vernet, whose influence is perceptible in his early compositions. Between 1840 and 1842 he resided in Italy, further refining his approach through the study of classical models.
Upon returning to Berlin, Steffeck devoted himself primarily to scenes of hunting and animal subjects. Over time, his work increasingly concentrated on the horse, observed in moments of rest, training, and sporting activity, rendered with close attention to structure, movement, and temperament. Alongside these, he continued to produce portraits of various scales, historical compositions, lithographs, etchings, and a limited number of small bronze sculptures. His practice combined academic discipline with a direct observation of living animals, resulting in images that balance anatomical precision with a controlled sense of vitality.
From the early 1850s, teaching assumed a central role in his career. In 1859 he was appointed Professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts, and in 1880 he became Director of the Kunstakademie in Königsberg. His influence extended to a younger generation of artists, among them Max Liebermann, who later recalled Steffeck’s rapid execution of small equestrian portraits produced for immediate sale.
Although best known for his animal subjects, Steffeck also produced significant historical works, including The Execution of Robert Blum in Brigittenau and a cycle of scenes from Prussian history for the Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Königsberg. He died suddenly in Berlin in 1890 and was buried in the Französischer Friedhof.
