WAGNER, WILHELM (1887-1968)

“Dutch Girl” (c.1920)
Oil on board
66 x 56cm
Signed upper right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Wagner was a prominent German Expressionist. He was born in Hanau, and initially trained as a goldsmith, before completing studies of Fine Art in Hanau, Barmen and Berlin. He began work as a society portraitist, and worked in Paris & Copenhagen. In the years 1917-1922 he was based in Amsterdam, The Hague and finally Rotterdam, where he completed several streetscapes and portraits of Dutch locals. Later he settled in Bad Saarow where he would live most of his life. He specialised in cityscapes, landscapes and flower still lifes, initially in the popular Post-WWI Expressionist style, then later he switched to Impressionism. His early work of female nudes and portraits are similar to that of Czech master, Egon Schiele, whilst his portraits are akin to New Objectivity/Expressionist artists of Germany such as Otto Dix & Christian Schad. His Expressionist illustrations, similar to the work of George Grosz, are represented in the MOMA Collection & Leister's German Expressionist Collection.