Heinrich Otto (6 July 1858, Homberg - 13 May 1923,

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

) was a German painter,

lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

artist, and

etcher Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

Life and work

He was the second child born to Johannes Otto (1828–1889), a farmer and fruit seller, and his wife, Anna Gertrude née Scheibeler. At the age of fourteen, he began an apprenticeship as a sculptor, in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

. At twenty, he was accepted into a sculpting class taught by . He then spent two years at the

Kunsthochschule Kassel Kunsthochschule Kassel (German; "Kassel College of Art") is a college of fine arts in Kassel, Germany. Founded in 1777, it is a semi-autonomous department of the University of Kassel . Notable people * Daniel Stieglitz * Peter Angermann * Si ...

, with

Louis Kolitz Louis Kolitz (5 April 1845, in Tilsit – 24 July 1914, in Berlin) was a German painter who worked in a wide variety of genres, including history painting, military art, portraits, landscapes and vedute. For many years, he served as Director of ...

and . After 1881, he was a regular visitor to the . In 1889, he moved to Düsseldorf, and lived next door to the Kunstakademie. He also became associated with the progressive artists' group, Malkasten, which included some of the painters he had known at Willingshäuser. From 1898 to 1902, he was one of their Board members and took numerous painting trips throughout Germany. In 1901, he was awarded Dresden's "Goldene Staatsmedaille" for his lithograph, ''Mondnacht'' (moon night), which gained him a wider audience among private collectors. From 1903, he worked as a painting and drawing teacher for young women. His summers were often spent in Willingshäuser. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he lived in , where he managed a farm belonging to one of his nephews, who had been drafted. The farmhouse became a frequent meeting place for painters from the Willingshäuser colony. He continued to paint prolifically, adding harvests to his repertoire of themes. After the war, some his designs went to make up the "Hessenkunst-Kalendar" for 1920. He returned to Düsseldorf, where he had been appointed a Professor at the Kunstakademie, and died there in 1923, shortly before he would have turned sixty-five, from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

. His works may be seen at the Neue Galerie,

, , Ziegenhain, and the .

Sources

* Carl Bantzer: "Heinrich Otto", In: Christian Rauch (Ed.), ''Hessenkunst''. Marburg, 1920, pg.49 * Walter Cohen, "Otto, Heinrich", In: ''Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart'', Vol. 26: Olivier–Pieris, E. A. Seemann, Leipzig 1932 * Ernst Hager: ''Der Malerradierer Heinrich Otto'', Bagel Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1923. * Wilhelm Schäfer. "Heinrich Otto"", In: ''Die Rheinlande'', #8, vol.4, April 1908, pp.89–90 * : "Heinrich Otto", In: Ingeborg Schnack (Ed.), ''Lebensbilder aus Kurhessen und Waldeck'', Vol.2, Elwert-Braun, Marburg, 1940. * Rainer Zimmermann: "Heinrich Otto – Maler und Radierer", In: ''Hessische Heimat'', #9, 1959/60, Vol.1, pp. 16–18

External links

*
"Heinrich Otto und die Willingshäuser Malerkolonie"
@ Kunststation Kleinsassen {{DEFAULTSORT:Otto, Heinrich 1858 births 1923 deaths 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German etchers German lithographers Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf Deaths from pneumonia in Germany People from Homberg (Efze) 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists