Wilhelm Iwan Friederich August Freiherr von Gloeden was a German photographer, mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boys, which usually featured props such as wreaths or amphoras suggesting a setting in the Greece or Italy of antiquity.
Background
Wilhelm Iwan Friederich August Freiherr von Gloeden was born on September 16, 1856 in Mecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is believed he was the son of head forester Carl Hermann Gloeden (1820-1862) and his wife Charlotte Maassen (1824-1901; from 1864 Charlotte von Hammerstein).
Education
After studying art history in Rostock (1876), Wilhelm von Gloeden studied painting under Karl Gehrts at the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School (1876-1877) until he was forced by lung disease (apparently tuberculosis) to interrupt his studies for a year, convalescing at a sanatorium in the Baltic Sea resort of Görbersdorf. In a search for health, he travelled to Italy (1877-1878), first staying in Naples before moving on to Taormina in Sicily. He lodged at the Hotel Vittoria before buying a house near San Domenico Convent.
Career
The mayor of Taormina in 1872-1882 was the German landscape painter Otto Geleng (1843-1939), who had moved there in 1863. Through him, Wilhelm von Gloeden became acquainted with the local inhabitants. He set up his photographic studio in Taormina at first as a hobby and was exhibiting his work internationally by 1893 (London), including Cairo (1897), Berlin (1898-1899, including a solo exhibition), Philadelphia (1902), Budapest & Marseilles (1903), Nice (1903 & 1905), Riga (1905), Dresden (1909) and Rome (World Fair 1911).
In 1895 Wilhelm von Gloeden received as a gift from his friend and patron the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a large-format plate camera. Soon his work brought him visitors from Europe, including royalty, industrialists, writers, including Oscar Wilde in December 1897, and artists. In 1930, he ceased work as a photographer and sold his house on the Piazza San Domenico in Taormina in return for an annuity and residence rights.