He was born to the painter, Anton Wintergerst (1737–1805), and his second wife, Maria Barbara née Bux, daughter of the
faience maker, Johann Baptist Bux (1716-1800). After 1804, he attended the
Academy of Fine Arts Munich, then the
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. There, in 1809, he became one of the co-founders of the "Lukasbund" artists' guild. In 1811, he went to Rome with his friends,
Friedrich Overbeck and
Franz Pforr, and joined the artists' colony at
Sant’Isidoro a Capo le Case. Pforr's untimely death in 1812 left him unsettled so, in 1813, he went to Switzerland, accompanied by , and taught at the Cantonal school in
Aarau. After 1815, he was a drawing teacher at the
gymnasium in
Ellwangen. In 1822 his friend,
Peter von Cornelius, hired him as a drawing teacher at the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where Cornelius was Acting Director. Two years later, Wintergerst succeeded Peter's brother, as "Inspector" and began giving drawing lessons at the . He resigned these positions in the early 1850s and retired. His sister, was one of his students. She also became a well known painter and drawing teacher. ==References==