Johann Friedrich Overbeck was a German painter and member of the Nazarene movement. He also made four etchings. Born in Lübeck, he had three generations of ancestors who had been Protestant pastors.

The young artist left Lubeck in March 1806, and entered as student the academy of Vienna, then under the direction of Heinrich Füger. Füger had trained under the French neo-classic* painter Jacques-Louis David. While Overbeck clearly accrued some of the polished technical aspects of the neo-classic painters, he was alienated by lack of religious spirituality in the themes chosen by his masters. Overbeck wrote to a friend that he had fallen among a vulgar set, that every noble thought was suppressed within the academy and that losing all f...