Dachau Artists' Colony
The Dachau Artists' Colony was located in Dachau, Germany, and flourished from around 1890 until 1914. HistoryIn the early 19th century, the then-bucolic village of Dachau (located just 12 miles from Munich) began attracting landscape painters.[1] By the second half of the century, Barbizon-influenced painters like Carl Spitzweg and Christian Morgenstern, and academic painters like Wilhelm von Diez and Eduard Schleich the Elder had worked in and around Dachau.[1] A new era opened in 1888 when the German painter Adolf Hölzel moved to Dachau.[2] In 1897 he and several other avant-garde artists — notably Ludwig Dill and Arthur Langhammer — set up the "New Dachau" art school in Dachau that attracted artists from all over Europe, especially rural genre painters, landscape painters, and printmakers.[2] Many stayed and formed a colony, drawn both by the picturesque surrounding moors stretching to the distant Alps and by the lower cost of living than in nearby Munich.[2][1] Among those drawn to the artists' colony were Fritz von Uhde,[3] Walther Klemm,[4] Gertrud Staats,[5] and Carl Thiemann.[4] The architect Georg Ludwig designed a group of residences for Dachau artists.[6] The new colony achieved national recognition in 1898 when Hölzel, Dill, and Langhammer mounted a joint exhibition in Berlin under the title "The Dachauer".[1] So many artists passed through Dachau during its first fifteen years that certain subjects and views were reproduced repeatedly.[6] One especially popular subject was an old cottage surrounded by ancient poplars, known as the 'Moss Hut' (Moosschwaige).[6] The nearby moorland, called the Dachauer Moos, was another popular subject.[6] The heyday of the colony lasted only until 1914, when many artists left to join the military during World War I and never returned.[1] In addition, new developments in art during the postwar era — especially the rise of urban and industrial subjects — began to leave Dachau colony artists behind.[1] After World War II, the art colony was nearly forgotten as Dachau became associated in most people's minds above all with the Dachau concentration camp.[1] See alsoReferences
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