Julius Wentscher — East Prussian landscape painter
This special exhibition is drawn from the artist’s estate and will be shown exclusively in Schwaan, honouring his extensive body of work. Julius Wentscher received his first training at the Art Academy in Königsberg (Prussia), followed by studies at the Berlin Academy in the landscape painting master class under Hans Fredrik Gude. The Königsberg Academy, founded in 1845, is regarded today as the East Prussian breeding ground for progressive landscape painting, where open-minded professors taught who practised plein-air painting and had come into contact with Impressionism in various ways. From 1884 onwards, Julius Wentscher was listed as a landscape painter in the Berlin address books. In 1881, while still living in Königsberg, he exhibited for the first time at the exhibition of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. After that, he was regularly represented at the Academy exhibitions and later at the Great Berlin Art Exhibitions. In 1899, he received the Small Gold Medal for Art from the Academy. He was a member of the General German Art Association and of the Association of Berlin Artists. His œuvre consisted mainly of landscapes and marine paintings, with portraits appearing less frequently. He found his subjects chiefly along the Sambian coast, the Curonian Spit, and the Mecklenburg Baltic coast. The exhibition comprises more than 60 paintings and watercolours.
