He was born in
Ettal, He worked as an artist in Munich before being appointed academy professor and court copper engraver in
Mannheim (capital of the
Electoral Palatinate) by
Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria in 1765. It was in Mannheim that Verhelst founded his own engraving school, which he shaped in the Parisian style. His portrait prints, in which he immortalized many of his contemporaries, were particularly famous. In 1777 he followed the elector to the then Palatinate-Bavarian capital of Munich. It was once assumed that he died on an unknown date in 1818 in Munich. However, in 1914 it was discovered in the church records of the
Jesuit Church in Mannheim that he died on 13 January 1804. Egid Verhelst was one of the teachers of the Bavarian court painter
Wilhelm von Kobell, as well as
Stephan von Stengel,
Karl Matthias Ernst and the Mannheim copperplate engraver Heinrich Sintzenich. Also the Mannheim court painter
Joseph Fratrel is counted among his students. ==Further reading==