Karl Friedrich Christian Welsch (aka Charles Feodor Welsch) was born in Wesel, Germany in 1828. 

Welsch came from a family of painters.  His father, Johann Friedrich Welsch, was his first teacher and painted genre scenes, portraits, and later, city views.  His younger brother Julius Maria Jakob Welsh (1832-1899) later became a decoration painter.  Welsch continued his training in Brussels, The Hague, and Paris and was a pupil of the noted Swiss landscape painter Alexandre Calame and of French painter Felix-Francois-Georges-Philiberte Ziem, who was particularly known for his views of Venice.  

His art-historical significance derives mainly from the fact that he taught  thirteen-year-old John Singer Sargent between 1869 to 1871 in Europe where Sargent's parents lived as American immigrants.  John Singer Sargent later noted that his lessons consisted primarily of Welsch making his studio available. He spent a lot of time getting beer and wine for Welsch from the nearby shops.

Welsch spent eight years in the United States and opened a gallery in Cincinnati where he was also a  teacher (John Douglas Woodward was his student).  He also taught at the Seminary of the Genesee Conference in Cazenovia, New York.

Exhibited

Paris Salon, 1859, regularly from 1865-1975. National Academy of Design, 1860, 1861; Young Men's Association, Buffalo, 1861; Sailor's Fair, Boston, 1864; Northwester. Fair, Chicago, 1865; Union League of Philadelphia, 1871; Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, 1873 and 1874; Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 1876; Royal Adademy, 1871, 1873.