Otto MÜLLER-HARTAU, Forest

Watercolor, cardboard, 26 x 20 cm, signed p.d.: Otto Müller-Hartau.

Silesian painter. He fought in both world wars, traveled extensively and frequently changed his place of residence (Hanover, studies at the Wrocław State Academy of Arts and Crafts with Prof. Arnold Busch, Szczawno Zdrój (Hartau), the vicinity of Duszniki Zdrój, Lower Saxony, Worpswede, East Prussia, Finland). He eventually settled in Hinterzarten in the Black Forest, where he became a well-known and respected painter of the local landscape. He created in oils, as well as in tempera, pastels, gouaches and watercolors, landscapes and insightful studies of nature, compositions of flowers and still lifes, but also depictions of architecture, interior paintings and portraits. Most of his landscapes, which are rather small in format, have a specific, intimate character.