The German landscape painter Eduard Leonhardi is best known for his beautifully lit, romantic forest scenes for which he drew inspiration from the vast forests of central Germany. The painter received his training at the Dresden Academy. His teacher there was, among others, the landscape painter Adrian Ludwig Richter, who idealized the German landscape and folk traditions in his work. Between 1855 and 1859 Leonhardi studied in Düsseldorf. There he married Apoline Schotel in 1859, the daughter of the Dutch marine painter P.J. Schotel, and then moved back to Dresden. A large inheritance enabled him to freely choose his subjects. He converted an old water mill in the countryside, the 'Hentschellmühle', into a studio. Now the Leonhardi Museum is located there.