Adolf Hölzel, a famed German artist, is considered one of the foremost pioneers of abstract modernism in Germany. While he received little recognition as an artist, he was an influential teacher at the academy in Stuttgart.
On May 13, 1853, Adolf Richard Hölzel was born in Olmütz, now known as the Czech city of Olomouc. Hölzel took lessons from printer Gotha and studied at the trade school in Vienna. He began his career in his father’s printing company, which was established in Vienna in 1861. The company specialized in lithographic prints of oil paintings.
In 1873, Adolf Hölzel moved to Vienna to study at the art academy for a year. He interrupted his studies to serve as a volunteer in the army. In Vienna, Hölzel studied under renowned teachers such as Carl Wurzinger, Christian Griepenkerl, and August Eisenmenger. From 1876 to 1882, he studied painting at the academy in Munich.
At the beginning of the 1880s, Adolf Hölzel painted a number of genre pieces. In 1887, he traveled to Paris with Arthur Langhammer, where he was introduced to the work of the French Impressionists. This influence is evident in his later works, created from 1890 onwards.
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