Adolf Hölzel (1853-1934)

Adolf Hölzel, who had trained at the Academies in both Vienna and Munich in the 1870s, visited Paris in the 1880s where his style and technique underwent an immediate change due to the impact of the plein-air paintings of the impressionists. After his return to Germany, he settled in Dachau where he was a co-founder of the New Dachau School of Painting along with Ludwig Dill and Fritz von Uhde. From about 1907, his work became dominated by abstractions, based on religious scenes. Between 1906 and 1919, Hölzel was Professor at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart, where he was an extremely influential teacher to many young artists who included Oskar Schlemmer and Johannes Itten. From 1910 to 1913, Hölzel was concentrating mainly on his career as a teacher, rather than on his own painting, for which he was much criticised by his contemporaries. (W. Venzmer, Adolf Hölzel, Leben und Werk, Stuttgart 1982, p. 26). As Hermann Missenharter wrote in the Württembergische Zeitung of 4th of March 1913: "Professor Hölzel spielt im Stuttgarter Kunstleben eine besondere Rölle. Er selbst tritt mit eigenen Werken nur selten hervor, um so mehr aber hört und sieht man allenthalben von Hölzelschülern..."