Wilhelm Ludwig Ferdinand Stumpf (30 March 1873, in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

– 27 August 1926, in

Oberstaufen Oberstaufen ( Low Alemannic: ''Schtoufe'') is a municipality in the district of Oberallgäu in Bavarian Swabia, Germany, situated on the B 308 road from Lindau to Immenstadt. History It is first mentioned as ''Stoufun'' in AD 868. Historically ...

) was a German landscape/portrait painter and illustrator.

Life

He was the son of a businessman, Gustav Stumpf (1842–1914). From 1884 to 1889, he attended the König-Albert-Gymnasium in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

.König Albert-Gymnasium (bis 1900 Königliches Gymnasium) in Leipzig: ''Schüler-Album 1880-1904/05.'' Friedrich Gröber, Leipzig 1905. Later he attended the art academies in

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, where he specialized in landscape and portrait painting. In Munich he studied under

Gabriel von Hackl Gabriel (von) Hackl (24 March 1843 – 5 June 1926) was a German historicism (art), historicist painter. Life and work He was born in Maribor, Lower Styria, Austrian Empire. A surgeon's son, he attended the gymnasium (school), gymnasium in his ...

Karl Raupp Karl Raupp (2 March 1837 in Darmstadt – 14 June 1918 in Munich) was a German landscape and genre painter. Biography After studying genre painting under Jakob Becker at the Städel Institute in Frankfurt, he became a pupil and zealous foll ...

, Paul Hoecker and

Heinrich von Zügel Heinrich Johann von Zügel (22 October 1850, Murrhardt – 30 January 1941, Munich) was a German painter who specialized in pictures of farm and domestic animals, often posed with a human in a dramatic or humorous situation. Life Beginning in 1 ...

. His style of painting was, therefore, highly influenced by

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

. From 1898 to 1899 he attended the art school at Burghausen. In 1904 he married Gertrud Salge (1877–1949), a painter from

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

. They lived in

Wolfratshausen Wolfratshausen () is a town of the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, located in Bavaria, Germany. The town had a population of 19,033 as of 31 December 2019. History The first mention of "Wolveradeshusun" appears in documents from the year ...

at first then, from 1908 to 1910, in Regenstauf. From 1900 to 1922 he exhibited regularly at the Munich Glaspalast. In that year, he won the Silver Medal for decorative design at the Leipzig Art Exhibition. In addition to his paintings, he produced woodcuts, etchings and book illustrations. During the

First World War 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 served as a war correspondent and illustrator for the German campaign in the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

. This was not only physically stressful, but psychologically damaging as well. After the war, Stumpf and his wife moved to the

Oberallgäu Oberallgäu is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Unterallgäu and Ostallgäu, the Austrian states Tyrol and Vorarlberg, the district of Lindau, and the state ...

district, settling in

, where he stayed at a rehabilitation center, hoping to recuperate his strength and peace of mind. Unfortunately, the

hyperinflation In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimize their holdings in that currency as t ...

of the 1920s wiped out his savings and he was in little demand as an artist. As a result, he fell into a deep depression and committed suicide. In 2009, a memorial exhibition was presented in Oberstaufen, accompanied by the first comprehensive catalog of his works; a list of which can be found in the corresponding article on German Wikipedia.

References

Sources

* Ingrid Huober, Monika Gauss, Anne Marie Mörler: ''Wilhelm Stumpf 1873-1926. Gedächtnisausstellung im Färberhaus Oberstaufen 2009.'' herausgegeben vom Künstlerkreis Oberstaufen, Oberstaufen 2009. * Gunther le Maire: ''Ein Weimarer hofft auf Heilung im Allgäu. Kunstgeschichte(n) 49: Wilhelm Stumpf.'' In: ''Allgäuer Anzeigenblatt.'' Oberallgäu-Kultur, Nr. 70, 24 March 2007
(online)
* Rosemarie Schwesinger: ''Das tragische Ende eines Heilung-Suchenden.'' In: ''Allgäuer-Anzeigenblatt.'' Oberallgäu-Kultur, Nr. 219 23 September 2009
(online)

External links

Wilhelm Stumpf: ''Vorfrühling im Gebirge
on Artnet
Wilhelm Stumpf: ''Winters Ende in Kitzbühel''
on Artnet
Wilhelm Stumpf Auctions

''Letzte Jahre in Oberstaufen.''
(from the Exhibition Catalog, 2009) {{DEFAULTSORT:Stumpf, Wilhelm German illustrators Artists from Weimar 1873 births 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters 1926 suicides German war correspondents War correspondents of World War I Suicides in Germany