Background
He was the son of a mill builder.
He was the son of a mill builder.
In 1871, he began drawing lessons with de:Paul Tischbein in Rostock and attended a trade school after Tischbein"s death.
In 1878, he entered the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin but, later that same year, he moved to the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School. Beginning in 1892, he spent the summers in his home town of Schwaan and founded an art colony there. Every year, some of his students would accompany him and engage in plein-air painting.
Occasionally, his fellow artists from the Academy would join him.
His later works are notable for an almost reverential approach to depicting nature in detail. Among his favorite subjects were Schwaan, the surrounding villages and scenes along the Warnow River.
From 1903 to 1914, he exhibited regularly at the Glaspalast (Munich). 1880: Gold Medal for Fine Arts of the Karl-Alexander Foundation of Weimar.
1880: Gold Medal for Fine Arts of the Karl-Alexander Foundation of Weimar. 1910: Appointed a Professor in 1910, by authority of Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst. 1911: Grand Medal for Arts and Sciences of Friedrich Franz IV, in Schwerin. 1927: Made an honorary citizen of Schwaan, with a street named after him.
