Carl Freiherr von Pidoll zu Quintenbach was a painter and student of Hans von Marées.

Carl Freiherr von Pidoll was born in Vienna in 1847 as Karl Michael Valentin Freiherr von Pidoll, son of Franz Carl Freiherr von Pidoll and Gabriele Helene von Mack. Since both his father and his grandfather had careers in the Austrian army, he initially chose an officer's career, but then ended his military service in 1873 as a captain in the general staff and became a student of the painter August Eisenmenger in Vienna in 1873/74. In the summer of 1874 he moved to Wilhelm Füssli in Karlsruhe and from 1874 to 1878 to Arnold Böcklin in Florence.

After his marriage in 1879, the young couple moved to Florence, where Pidoll joined the painter Hans von Marées from 1880 to 1884 and worked in his studio. From 1885 to 1891 the couple lived in Paris, where Pidoll learned from August Boulard the Elder. Pidoll's contribution to the 1889 World's Fair in Paris attracted great interest and won a prize there. From October 1891 the couple lived in Frankfurt am Main, where Pidoll painted not only portraits but also landscapes.

Due to the increasing popularity of his writing on Marées and contacts with the Frankfurt-based artists Albert Lang and Hans Thoma, Karl von Pidoll was accepted into the circle around Wilhelm Steinhausen. He was able to exhibit frequently and began to pass on his knowledge to other painters. His students included Wilhelm Altheim, Fritz Boehle and Ottilie Roederstein.

Because of Pidoll's severe headaches, the couple moved to warmer Rome in 1900, where Pidoll died by suicide in 1901.