Wilhelm Busch

Wilhelm Busch – Belated art education in Düsseldorf and Antwerp

Wilhelm Busch was born in Wiedensahl on 15 April 1832. He was the first of seven children from a devout Protestant family, which with time, achieved prosperity and so was able to finance the studies of three sons. This included Wilhelm, who had already received private tuition from his uncle, Pastor Georg Kleine. In 1847, he began studying engineering at today’s Leibniz University in Hannover but broke it off after four years to study at the Art academy in Düsseldorf. With the support of his mother, he persuaded his father to pay for one year of his fees, but when he was denied the advanced classes and instead assigned the preparatory courses with Karl Ferdinand Sohn and Heinrich Macke, the young artist’s enthusiasm waned, and he stayed away from lessons. In 1852, Wilhelm Busch moved to Antwerp to continue studies with the Belgian painter Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans, having only just managed to convince his parents of the necessity of this change. 

Self-doubt and illness; rift with his parents

Wilhelm Busch discovered the art of Adriaen Brouwer, Frans Hals and Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp, which influenced as much as burdened him, doubting his own painting abilities when confronted with the Old Masters. Wracked by his illness, he once more sought refuge with his uncle Georg Kleine, who had long since taken the place of his biological parents, from whom Wilhelm Busch had become increasingly estranged. A quarrel over the continuation of his art studies in Munich led to a final rift with his father, and after one last payment, the contact broke. Artistic failure brought Busch to consider emigrating to Brazil, but the publisher Kaspar Braun offered him a position working on his satirical publications, providing the artist with his first wage which was sufficient to secure a living. This work, however, did not bring him fulfilment: he viewed it merely as breadwinning, without any ambition, and felt the financial dependence on Kaspar Braun as a constricting fetter. All his attempts to gain foothold as a recognised painter were unsuccessful. 

Controversy around the grandfather of the modern comic

Wilhelm Busch had already displayed his great talent for drawing as a child, such as the portrait of his childhood friend Erich Bachmann, son of a miller, who bore some resemblance to the rascal Max, whilst Busch modelled the companion Moritz on himself. Busch sold the actual picture story of Max and Moritz – probably his most famous, when not his most artistically impressive work – to Kaspar Braun for two years wages. Initially a large financial return for the artist, it was only a fraction of that which the publisher would later earn. Despite this, things continued to improve economically for Busch, although not without opposition: His picture story Saint Anthony of Padua brought his new publisher Moritz a court case for blasphemy, whilst his work Pious Helene offended his friend and patron Johanna Keßler, and the years that followed were not lacking in outraged reactions to his sometimes sharp and hurtful caricatures. The boundaries are still controversial today, in particular the frequent depictions of beatings as well as some verses about Jews, which have earned the artist accusations of anti-Semitism. 

Wilhelm Busch died on 9 January 1908 in Mechtshausen. As the forerunner of today’s ubiquitous comics, he enjoys lasting fame, even though his lifelong dream of becoming a great painter was never fulfilled.