Carl Schlesinger was a Swiss-German genre and landscape painter.

Schlesinger began his painting apprenticeship in Hamburg with Gerdt Hardorff and Hermann Kauffmann and continued it in 1844 at the Prague Academy with Christian Ruben . In 1850 he came to Antwerp, where he finished his apprenticeship.

Since 1852 he lived in Düsseldorf, where his brother Felix, who, like him, is assigned to the Düsseldorf School, had received training at the academy and with Rudolf Jordan. From there he went on many study trips. From 1852 to 1893 Schlesinger belonged to the artists' association Malkasten. He was also a member of the Hamburg Artists' Association from 1832.