How to get your own museum

In 1909, while the artist was still alive, an encyclopedia named him “one of the favorite painters of the German people” — an appellation (reinforced by art historical opinions) that prepared the ground for posthumously claiming Thoma for National Socialist ideologies in the 1930s.

The Grand Duke of Baden wanted to dedicate a museum to Hans Thoma and his “works created by a master’s hands”, as Frederick I of Baden put it. What artist has the pleasure of curating his own retrospective during his lifetime for a building that will bear his name?

The planned Thoma Museum and Thoma Chapel was the initial spark for the expansion of the Kunsthalle building under head architect Heinrich Amersbach.

A name set in stone

Most of the new Kunsthalle wing was completed in time for Hans Thoma’s 70th birthday in 1909. And the street on which the building is located was also renamed Hans-Thoma-Strasse in his honour. Hardly any other director has left such a nominal mark on the Kunsthalle as this last artist-director, who, in addition to the museum, also presided over the Grand Ducal School of Art.

Not afraid to fail!

The self-portrait you see here, however, was created at a time when Thoma’s works were not yet among the most popular motifs for chocolate boxes. On the contrary, the artist received much harsh criticism in Munich, the art mecca of the time, where he lived from 1970 to 1976. Notwithstanding, the 36-year-old Thoma portrayed himself here with an alert, unflinching gaze and in an attitude as if ready to pounce.

Glory beyond the grave

Death, embodied by the skeleton behind Thoma’s back, is not the seductively clinging Death playing the fiddle of the painting by Arnold Böcklin to which Thoma surely refers . No, here the skeleton wears a laurel wreath: the artist is not thinking so much about his own mortality. Rather, he is preoccupied with the idea of fame, associated with his name, outlasting his own death.