Otto Melller (16 October 1874 – 24 September 1930) was a German painter and printmaker of the Die Brücke expressionist movement.

Life and work

Mueller was born in Liebau (now Lubawka,

Kamienna Góra County __NOTOC__ Kamienna Góra County () 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 Polish local government reforms ...

), Kreis Landeshut, Silesia. Between 1890 and 1892 he was trained in

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, 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 ...

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

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

under Georg Freyer and continued his study in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

during 1898. He left Munich's academy after Franz von Stuck classified him as untalented. His early works are influenced by

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

, Jugendstil and Symbolism. 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 of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

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

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...

and Erich Heckel. In 1910, he joined ' Die Brücke', 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'. 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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 and Isidor Ascheim were among his pupils there. In 1937 the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

seized 357 of his works from German museums as " degenerate art".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 women; his nickname was "Gypsy Mueller" and his mother was perhaps Romani. Mueller was a huge fan of Egyptian art, and likened his use of simple clean lines to the ancient style. The medium he preferred for his paintings was distemper 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 miscibility, 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 ...

s, but including a few woodcuts 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 type ...

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

Notes

References

*Moeller, Magdalena M. ''The Brücke Museum, Berlin''. Prestel, 2001. *Wolf, Norbert. ''Expressionism''. Taschen, 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 Romani people in art