Paul Wilhelm

Paul Wilhelm was born in Greiz in 1886 and, after finishing school, studied in Dresden from 1904, initially at the Royal School of Arts and Crafts under Paul Hermann Naumann. He then studied at the Academy of Arts and Crafts under Richard Müller, Oskar Zwintscher and Gotthardt Kuehl from 1905 to 1912. From 1912 onwards, he was a member of the Dresden Artists’ Association. In 1919, he married the American Marion Eleonore Lane, who from then on frequently appeared as a motif in his work. After the First World War, he briefly took up Expressionist influences, but soon returned to his pre-war style. After numerous trips abroad between 1922 and 1924 and stays in England (1931–1935), he joined the circle of the ‘Seven Walkers’ in 1935. In 1937, as part of the ‘Degenerate Art’ campaign, his print ‘Heimkehr’ (Homecoming) was confiscated and destroyed at the German Graphic Arts Exhibition in Görlitz. In 1944, he was drafted into the Kriegsmarine and returned to Radebeul in 1945 after being held as a prisoner of war by the Americans. On 24 August 1946, he was honorarily appointed professor as a representative of the Dresden School of Painting. In 1948, he was given a solo exhibition at the Dresden State Art Collections. A large posthumous exhibition followed there in 1987. Despite changes, his work is very homogeneous overall. He mainly creates landscape and flower paintings. He attaches particular importance to harmonious balance in composition and colouring. Figures are often included in the landscape. Portraits are less common and exclusively depict people from his immediate surroundings, especially his wife Marion.