Hans Thoma the artist
This tour focuses on six paintings by Hans Thoma chosen as an overview of his different creative phases and main artistic interests.
Born in 1839, Hans Thoma grew up in modest circumstances in Bernau in Germany’s Black Forest region.
After studying at Karlsruhe’s Grand Ducal Art School, he lived in Paris before settling in Munich in 1870 and moving to Frankfurt am Main six years later.
His travels took him to Italy, England, and Holland. For many years unsuccessful, his longed-for artistic breakthrough came at an exhibition in Munich in 1890. His early realistic works were appreciated as expressing his love of nature and his home region.
In the following years, his works became both well-known and well-liked, seen at sophisticated and popular cultural venues as well as in public and private spaces. In 1899, the Grand Duke appointed Thoma as Kunsthalle director and a professor at the academy.
Thoma developed a strong network across the cultural sector, received many honours and awards, and major German museums acquired his works. However, from the 1880s, he also cultivated close contacts to racial-nationalist (völkisch) circles. Thoma died in 1924 in Karlsruhe. The ambivalence of his political views remains a subject of debate even today.