Hans Thoma

Hans Thoma - Difficult years of apprenticeship; from hardship to art

Hans Thoma was born in Bernau on 2nd October 1839. His father, a trained miller, had to earn a living for the family as a woodworker, while his mother came from a family of artisans. The path from a small Black Forest village to the big world of painting seemed immeasurably long, but Hans Thoma made it with his talent and in an indirect way: he terminated an apprenticeship as a painter and lithographer in Basel and was unable to complete a second as a clock painter in Furtwangen due to a lack of financial means. The early death of his father put the young man under considerable pressure as he had to look after his mother and sister, and economic hardship and lack of alternatives forced Thoma to try his luck with painting without any proper training. He created small pictures to decorate farmhouses, portraits and landscapes, and attracted the attention of the bailiff of St. Blasien, who eventually arranged a scholarship for him at the Grand Ducal Academy in Karlsruhe. The acting director of the academy was Ludwig Schirmer, who himself had a good reputation as a landscape painter and was therefore probably open to the work of the young Hans.

Important inspiration from Gustave Courbet

Together with his fellow student Otto Scholderer, Hans Thoma undertook a study trip to Paris and was impressed by the works of Gustave Courbet and the Barbizon School. Courbet in particular had a lasting influence on Thoma’s work, who settled in Munich as a painter and teacher. There he eventually married his pupil Cella Berteneder, who herself became known as a painter of flowers and still lifes, was friends with Arnold Böcklin, and was also close to the circle around Wilhelm Leibl. Thoma had a divided relationship with the art market: On the one hand, he criticised the commercialism that was already rampant in his day, while on the other, he sometimes catered to precisely these demands and produced works of art in series. It was not until late in his career that he gained national recognition and prosperity, and around 1910 he was regarded as the most important painter in Germany. Hans Thoma died in Karlsruhe on 7 November 1924.

Appropriation by National Socialism

Hans Thoma's art faced its greatest challenge without its creator: When the National Socialists seized power in Germany, Hans Thoma had long since died. Nevertheless, they did the worst thing to him that could happen to an artist: They worshipped him, appropriated him, turned him into a visually powerful witness to their crude ideology. In contrast to the powerful music of Richard Wagner - with whose son-in-law, the influential art historian Henry Thode, Thoma was closely associated - the paintings of the supposed German ‘prince of painters’ had a much harder time finding their way back into the public eye. Was it possible to simply accept the work of an artist whom Adolf Hitler celebrated as "original German" and having sprung from the "blood of his ancestors" in an honourable context? However, these abysses seem to have been largely overcome, and in 2013, Frankfurt's Städel Museum once again presented a major exhibition titled Hans Thoma. Favourite painter of the German people.