Otto Müller (16 October 1874 – 24 September 1930) was a German

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

of the

Die Brücke The Brücke (Bridge), also Künstlergruppe Brücke or KG Brücke was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later memb ...

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

movement.

Life and work

Mueller was born in Liebau (now Lubawka,

Kamienna Góra County __NOTOC__ Kamienna Góra County ( pl, powiat kamiennogórski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Poli ...

), Kreis Landeshut,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. Between 1890 and 1892 he was trained in

lithography 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 ...

Görlitz Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...

and Breslau. From 1894 to 1896 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

under Georg Freyer and continued his study in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

during 1898. He left Munich's academy after

Franz von Stuck Franz von Stuck (February 23, 1863 – August 30, 1928), born Franz Stuck, was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, and architect. Stuck was best known for his paintings of ancient mythology, receiving substantial critical acclaim with '' The ...

classified him as untalented. His early works are influenced by

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

Jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...

and

Symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sy ...

. However, much of his early work is lost due to his own destruction of his early pieces. When he settled to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

in 1908, his style became more expressionist. During this time there were meetings with

Wilhelm Lehmbruck Wilhelm Lehmbruck (4 January 188125 March 1919) was a German sculptor. Biography Born in Meiderich (part of Duisburg from 1905), he was the fourth of eight children born to the miner Wilhelm Lehmbruck and his wife Margaretha. He was able to stu ...

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

and

Erich Heckel Erich Heckel (31 July 1883 – 27 January 1970) was a German painter and printmaker, and a founding member of the group ''Die Brücke'' ("The Bridge") which existed 1905–1913. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Oly ...

. In 1910, he joined '

', a Dresden-based group of Expressionist artists. He was member of the group until it disbanded in 1913 due to artistic differences. At the same time Mueller also had contact with the artists group '

Der Blaue Reiter ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider) is a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name, first published in mid-May ...

'. Mueller was known as incredibly antibourgeois and is said to have urinated on the floor of a middle-class household when he was invited for a dinner party. 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 fought as a German soldier in France and Russia. After the war he became a professor at the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Bildenden Kunste) in Breslau where he taught until his death on 24 September 1930.

Johnny Friedlaender Johnny Friedlaender (26 December 1912 – 18 June 1992) was a leading German/French 20th-century artist, whose works have been exhibited in Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Japan and the United States. He has been influential upon oth ...

and

Isidor Ascheim Isidor Ascheim ( he, איזידור אשהיים; 1891-1968) was a German-born Israeli painter and printmaker. Biography Isidor Ascheim was born in Margonin (present-day Poland) in 1891. He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family and served dur ...

were among his pupils there. In 1937 the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

seized 357 of his works from German museums as "

degenerate art Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

".Wolf 2006, p. 76 They also looted Mueller' artworks from Jewish collectors like the Littmanns. Other Muellers were lost or stolen during the war Several artworks by Mueller turned up in the Gurlitt hoard. Mueller was one of the most lyrical of German expressionist painters. The main topic of Mueller's works is the unity of humans and nature; his paintings emphasize a harmonious simplification of form, colour and contours. He is known especially for his characteristic paintings of nudes and

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

women; his nickname was "Gypsy Mueller" and his mother was perhaps Romani. Mueller was a huge fan of

Egyptian art Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculpture ...

, and likened his use of simple clean lines to the ancient style. The medium he preferred for his paintings was

distemper Distemper may refer to: Illness *A viral infection **Canine distemper, a disease of dogs **Feline distemper, a disease of cats ** Phocine distemper, a disease of seals *A bacterial infection **Equine distemper, or Strangles, a bacterial infectio ...

on coarse canvas, which produced a mat surface.Wolf 2006, p. 76; Moeller 2001, p. 77 Altogether his printmaking amounted to 172 prints, nearly all of them

lithograph 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 ...

s, but including a few

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 ...

s and

etching 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 ...

Works

File:Otto Mueller - Selbstbildnis mit Gitarre - 1903-04.jpeg, ''Self-portrait with guitar'', 1903–04, oil on canvas, 76 × 65 cm, private collection File:Otto Mueller - Drei badende im Teich - ca1912.jpeg, ''Three bathing women in the pond'', c. 1912, glue paint on plucking, 119 x 90 cm, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund File:Jahresmappe.png, '' Brücke'', 1912, wood-print on paper, on cover File:Otto Mueller - Liebespaar - ca1914.jpeg, ''Two Lovers (Liebespaar)'', c. 1914, glue paint on plucking, 101.5 x 83.5 cm, private collection File:Otto Mueller, c.1919, Landscape with Yellow Nudes, oil on burlap, 70.2 x 90.8 cm, MoMA.jpg, ''Landscape with Yellow Nudes'', c. 1919, oil on burlap, 70.2 x 90.8 cm,

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

File:Otto Mueller - Drei Akte in Landschaft - ca1919.jpeg, ''Three Nudes in a Landscape'' (Drei Akte in Landschaft', 1919, tempera on canvas,

Brücke Museum The Brücke Museum in Berlin houses the world's largest collection of works by members of the group ''Die Brücke'' ("The Bridge"), an early 20th-century German expressionist movement. Origins Opened in 1967, it features around 400 paintings ...

, in Berlin File:Otto Mueller - Mutter und Kind 2 - 1920.jpeg, ''Mother and Child 2. (Mutter und Kind 2.)'', 1920, lithograph on paper, 26 x 18.7 cm File:Otto Mueller - Drei Akte - ca1925.jpeg, ''Three Figures (Drei Akte))'', c. 1925, watercolor and colored chalk on paper, 68 x 50 cm, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund File:Otto Mueller Waldstück mit Blumen und Teich.jpg, ''Forest with flowers and pond'', c. 1925, distemper on jute, 106.5 x 77 cm File:1928 Mueller Zigeunerpferd am schwarzen Wasser anagoria.JPG, ''Gypsy horse at black water'', 1928,

Germanisches Nationalmuseum The Germanisches National Museum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day. The Germanisches National ...

Notes

References

*Moeller, Magdalena M. ''The Brücke Museum, Berlin''. Prestel, 2001. *Wolf, Norbert. ''Expressionism''.

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Taschen Comics, pu ...

, 2006.

External links

Available Works & Biography
Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf, Germany {{DEFAULTSORT:Mueller, Otto 1874 births 1930 deaths People from Lubawka German Army personnel of World War I 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German Expressionist painters Artists from the Province of Silesia Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni 20th-century German printmakers German Romani people Romani painters