Gustav Wiethüchter - Mädchen mit Pfauenfeder

The painter and graphic artist Gustav Wiethüchter, born in 1873, was appointed to the School of Arts and Crafts in Wuppertal-Barmen in 1900 after completing his artistic training i.a. in Berlin. In Wuppertal, he quickly developed into an influential teacher whose students included artists such as Jankel Adler among others. After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, Wiethüchter resigned from office due to differences with the school management. The painter was one of the leading representatives of Rhenish Expressionism in the 1920s and participated in numerous exhibitions, in 1919 he joined „Das Junge Rheinland" and the „Novembergruppe“ in Berlin. His extensive oeuvre, most of which was destroyed in the bombings during the war, not only shows expressionist and cubist influences but also elements of Symbolism and Art Nouveau.