Adolf Obst

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Portrait of Adolf Obst

Adolf Obst (born August 27, 1869 in Berlin , † December 27, 1945 in Potsdam ) was a German painter . He traveled to many countries, especially China and France . Many of his works were destroyed during the Second World War.

Life

The landscape painter Adolf Obst was born in Berlin on August 27, 1869, the son of the church official Heinrich Obst and his wife Auguste (née Schmidt). At the age of 14 he started an apprenticeship at the Reichsdruckerei in Berlin , where he gained experience in lithography and copperplate engraving . During this training period he was given the opportunity to sit in on the perspective, anatomy and animals classes at the Prussian Academy of Fine Arts, which gave him the opportunity to paint horses from the Royal Stables in Berlin. In 1888 he decided to become a painter. He attended, most recently as a master student of Eugen Bracht , the “kgl. Academic University of Fine Arts ”in Berlin .

His first creative period took place in the years 1897/98 when he went on a "trip around the world" with the writer Paul Lindenberg . This trip was financed, among other things, with a grant from the Prussian minister of education. This trip was followed by artistic evaluation with exhibitions and the establishment of a painting school in Berlin / Wilmersdorf. 1900/01 he was a war painter at the headquarters of the German expeditionary force in China ( Boxer Rebellion ). He undertook this trip with his friend Reinhold Breßler . Under the orders of Count v. Waldersee , for which a studio was built and assigned to him on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Beijing . In 1902 he was accepted as a member of the " Association of Berlin Artists ". From this point on he made a name for himself as a landscape painter, in particular for the Mark Brandenburg. He also went on study trips to southern Sweden.

In 1907 he focused on France, where he first continued his studies in Paris as a student at the Académie Julian and then moved to Versailles to paint the castle with its landscape.

After returning to Berlin, he continued his painting school and became known through numerous exhibitions of his paintings. He continued his work as a landscape painter until he was appointed to the 5th Army of the Crown Prince (Western Front) as a “battle painter” in 1914 after the outbreak of World War I. Returning in 1915, another focus of his work was to paint “study heads” of colored French prisoners of war (so-called “auxiliaires”) on behalf of the War Ministry.

Then he continued to work as a landscape painter in 1934, a new focus of creativity was to illustrate pictures for a Saar book on behalf of a Berlin publishing house in Saarland (see works ). Far beyond this commission, he took the opportunity to work artistically more extensively. He was particularly active in the Neunkirchen iron and steel works, where he created industrial images , for example of the blast furnace tapping and the working people, including the miners ("buddies").

Then again, as "painter of the Mark", the landscape painting of German homeland, especially on Rügen , dedicated, he began to capture more and more cityscapes of old Berlin and other cities.

After his studio in Berlin Hohenzollerndamm 12 was bombed out, he moved to Potsdam in 1943 , where he found motifs in particular in Sanssouci , but also from the Garrison Church and old Potsdam. When the Red Army approached, his extensive stock of pictures was relocated to Glindow , where these pictures were later arbitrarily destroyed by the influence of the occupying forces, which explains that, apart from the stock of sold or donated paintings, many very important works have been lost.

Adolf Obst died on December 27, 1945 in Potsdam. His grave is in the New Cemetery in Potsdam, Section IX, position no.57.

Exhibitions

Below is a selection of exhibitions in which Obst has participated.

  • 1894 Great Berlin art exhibition
  • 1897 Great Berlin art exhibition
  • 1898 Society for Geography in Berlin (50 pictures from the study trip "Around the World")
  • 1905 Great Berlin art exhibition
  • 1906 Great Berlin art exhibition
  • 1908 Great Berlin art exhibition
  • 1916 Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin ("War Pictures Exhibition")
  • 1923 Great Berlin art exhibition
  • 1925 Great Berlin art exhibition
  • 1926 Guben (October), Cottbus (November)
  • 1927 Great Berlin art exhibition
  • 1927 Rostock (June), Stralsund (August), Greifswald (October)
  • 1928 Kunsthalle Frankfurt / Oder
  • 1930 Painting exhibition in the Ludwigslust town hall meeting room
  • 1932 Art exhibition in the Wilmersdorfer Stadthalle ("Pomeranian Art in Berlin")
  • 1934 Saar exhibition in Neunkirchen and Cologne
  • 1939 autumn exhibition "Association of Berlin Artists"
  • 1941 Great German Art Exhibition ("House of Art" in Munich)
  • 1970 commemorative exhibition "Wilmersdorf artists of the years 1868–1888" (Wilmersdorf Town Hall, Berlin)

Works (selection by date of creation)

  • "Oak trees on the island of Vilm" (1897)
  • Illustrations for Paul Lindenberg, "Around the earth in words and images" (1899)
  • "Avenue to the Pyramids of Cairo" (1900)
  • "Mont Lavina on Ceylon" (1900)
  • "Taku Forts" China (1900)
  • "Fire of the Imperial Palace in Beijing" (1901)
  • "On the mountain slope" (South Sweden 1903)
  • "Palace of Versailles" (1907)
  • "Berlin Palace" (1911; several times, also "View over the Kurfürstenbrücke")
  • "Advance on Varenne" (1914)
  • "Before Verdun - In the Artelleriefire" (1914)
  • "On the church square in Varennes - Argonne Forest" (1914)
  • "After the battle near Varenne in the Argonne" (1914)
  • "Winter Sun" (1916)
  • "Alt-Stralsund" (1925)
  • "View from the Krämerbrücke" Alt-Erfurt (1926)
  • Pictures for the book Klaus Rath, "Deutsches Land - Die Saar", 1934
  • "Tapping the blast furnace" (Eisenhütte Neunkirchen / Saar 1934)
  • "Allee nach Boizenburg" (1938)
  • "Sansouci Palace" (often from 1940)
  • "It wants to be evening" (undated, exhibited at the "Great German Art Exhibition" in 1941, sold in 1943)
  • "Garrison Church" in Potsdam (often, e.g. Garrison Church in the Snow 1943)
  • "Heiliggeistkirche" Potsdam (1944 - last work)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obst, Adolf. Retrieved April 21, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Hartmut Walravens: Wilhelm Grube (1855-1908): Life, work and collections of the linguist, ethnologist and sinologist . Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-447-05109-5 ( google.de [accessed June 22, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Colonies. Retrieved June 22, 2020 .
  4. ^ Die Woche: modern illustrated magazine , August Scherl Verlag, Berlin issue no. 39, page 1709 from 1900
  5. ↑ Adolf Obst's biography. Retrieved April 14, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b ArtFacts: https://artfacts.net/artist/adolf-obst/26474/biography. Retrieved April 21, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e Adolf Obst Artist | Art for Sale | Biography, Past and Future Exhibitions | on artist-info. Retrieved May 2, 2020 .
  8. ^ Directory of the exhibiting artists. Retrieved April 22, 2020 .
  9. ↑ exhibitions. Retrieved on May 2, 2020 (German).
  10. ↑ Adolf Obst - Pictures and Drawings. Retrieved May 8, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Obst, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1945
Place of death Potsdam