Paul Wilhelm Keller-Reutlingen

Paul Wilhelm Keller-Reutlingen
Born
Paul Wilhelm Keller

2 February 1854
Died10 January 1920 (aged 65)
Education
Spouse
Albertine Wetzel
(m. 1898)
Signature

Paul Wilhelm Keller-Reutlingen[n 1] (2 February 1854 – 10 January 1920) was a German landscape and genre painter.

Biography

Keller was born on 2 February 1854 in Reutlingen, the sixth of eight children to privateer Heinrich Adolf Keller (1815–1890) and Caroline Keller (née Finckh; 1819–1871).[1][2][3]

At his parents' request, Keller was trained in xylography by Adolf Closs from 1868 to 1872. Through a recommendation by Closs, Keller would go on to study painting under Bernhard von Neher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart from 1872 to 1873. From 1873 to 1874, he was mentored by Otto Seitz at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.[1][2][4] From 1874 to 1875, he completed his training in a painting class of Carl von Häberlin at Stuttgart.[1]

After his studies were finished, Keller served in Wilhelm I's 26th Dragoon Regiment, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant. Keller spent the latter half of the 1870s travelling Italy and completing his earliest major works – cityscapes and landscapes of the country.[1]

Keller settled in Fürstenfeldbruck, outside of Munich, in 1879. At this time, he would move on to genre paintings set in the Dachau region and the Swabian Alps.[1][5] These paintings were typically romantic depictions of forests and rural life, giving particular attention to atmospheric lighting.[5] In 1898, Keller married actress Albertine Wetzel (1867–1926; died by suicide).[1]

In 1893, Keller joined the Munich Secession.[5] He also participated in art exhibitions at the Glaspalast and the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung.[5] Keller's paintings have been displayed in museums across Germany throughout and after his lifetime.[5] He died in Munich in 1920.[5]

Selected works

Notes

  1. ^ Keller's legal name was Paul Wilhelm Keller; Reutlingen – his birthplace – was added to his pen name to distinguish him from other individuals with the same name.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Heck, Thomas Leon; Single, Steffen. "Biographische Daten zu Paul Wilhelm Keller-Reutlingen (PWKR)" [Biographical Data on Paul Wilhelm Keller-Reutlingen (PWKR)]. paul-wilhelm-keller-reutlingen-werkverzeichnis.de (in German). Retrieved 14 October 2025.
  2. ^ a b von Boetticher, Friedrich Heinrich (1891). Malerwerke des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts – Erster Band [Nineteenth Century Painters' Works – First Volume] (in German). Dresden: Boetticher's Publishing House. p. 671.
  3. ^ Bénézit, Emmanuel (1952). Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et engravers de tous les temps et de tous les pays: Tome 5 [Critical and Documentary Dictionary of Painters, Sculptors, Designers and Engravers of All Times and All Countries: Volume 5] (in French). Paris: Éditions Gründ. p. 671.
  4. ^ Singer, Hans Wolfgang (1921). Allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon. Leben und Werke der berühmtesten bildenden Künstler [General Artists' Lexicon: Lives and Works of the Most Famous Visual Artists] (in German). Frankfurt: Rütten & Loening. p. 321.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Vollmer, Hans (1927). Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart [General Dictionary of Artists from Antiquity to the Present] (in German). Leipzig: E. A. Seemann. p. 114.