Johann Gottfried Schadow was primarily a sculptor, active in Berlin from the 1780s to the 1820s at the court of three successive Prussian kings, becoming head of sculptural works to Frederick William II in 1788. For a further 20 years he was active as a writer and teacher at the Berlin Akademie, of which he was director for 35 years from 1815. He executed a wide range of portrait, historical, monumental and architectural sculptures: as well as members of the royal family and court, his subjects included men of action, thinkers and writers, among them Luther, Goethe and Schiller. Johann Gottfried's son Ridolfo Schadow was also a sculptor, from 1810 active in Rome, where he died at an early age in 1822. His younger brother, Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, was a painter, writer and teacher, holding the post of director of the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie from 1826 until 1859.