Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt
Artist: Joseph Karl Stieler (German, 1781–1858)
Date: 1843
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Collection: Charlottenhof Palace, Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, while his advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement pioneered modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Humboldt and Carl Ritter are both regarded as the founders of modern geography as they established it as an independent scientific discipline.