From 1822 Kaulbach studied under Peter von Cornelius (Cornelius, Peter von) at the Düsseldorf Academy. When Cornelius became director of the academy in Munich in 1824, he brought Kaulbach to Munich. Kaulbach succeeded Cornelius in 1843 as the academy's director—a position he held for 25 years. In his work he presented an idealized vision of history, which fed a nationalistic spirit and appealed to contemporary taste. A more ironic edge is sometimes discernible in his illustrations, as seen in his drawings for Reynard the Fox (1846–47), although his illustrations for the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich von Schiller, and William Shakespeare are traditional and somewhat conservative. As a muralist, Kaulbach covered acres of walls in Munich and Berlin in a style derived from that of late Raphael and Albrecht Dürer (Dürer, Albrecht). His monumental approach to historical painting, as seen in Destruction of Jerusalem (1836–46), Battle of the Huns (1834–37), Crusaders (1847–65), and Reformation (1847–65), set the standard for several generations.