Hans Thoma
Idyllic German style with Pre-Raphaelite affinities
Hans Thoma was a German painter. He was born on 2 October 1839 in Bernau, Grand Duchy of Baden, in the Black Forest, Germany. He was the son of a miller and was trained in the basics of painting by a painter of clock faces. He entered the Karlsruhe Academy in 1859, where he studied under Johann Wilhelm Schirmer and Ludwig des Coudres – the latter of which had a major influence on his career. Thoma also studied under Hans Gude, but rebelled against Gude's realism. He subsequently studied and worked, with but indifferent success, in Düsseldorf, Paris, Italy, Munich and Frankfurt, until his reputation became firmly established as the result of an exhibition of some thirty of his paintings in Munich. He died in Karlsruhe in 1924 at the age of 85. In spite of his studies under various masters, his art has little in common with modern ideas, and is formed partly by his early impressions of the simple idyllic life of his native district, partly by his sympathy with the early German masters, particularly with Albrecht Altdorfer and Lucas Cranach the Elder. In his love of the details of nature, in his precise drawing of outline, and in his predilection for local coloring, he has distinct affinities with the Pre-Raphaelites.
Relationship Network
Master student
- Johann Wilhelm Schirmer Master
- Hans Gude Master
- Albert Hermann Daur Student
- August Babberger Student
- Georg Scholz Student
- Hans Schroedter Student
Fellow student
Influenced by
Influenced
Artworks by this artist (1188 total)
- Landscape with a River 1893
- Under the elder bush 1871
- View of a forest in Säckingen 1870
- La Giardiniera 1881
- Sitting Knight 1885
- Der Wanderer (Meisterblatt) 1906
- View of the Monastery of St Francis in Florence 1887
- Sketch of a naked young man on horseback, depicted in profile. Horse head in the back 1908
- Study of scrubs in the vicinity of Karlsruhe 1880 - 1890
- Kopf Wotans 1897
- Young Male Nude Leaning Forward 1888
- Study of Two Male Nudes 1890
- Male Nude Sitting with Legs Crossed 1860 - 1880
- Flora 1894
- Study of a Valkyrie Costume in Combat 1896
- Flora 1882
- Schwein ca 1905
- Study of male nude 1880 - 1900
- Landscape on the Baar 1911
- November (die Regengötter) 1906