Julius Bergmann (1861-1940)

The Reed Cutter – Circa 1930

Julius Hugo Bergmann, German genre painter of animals and landscapes, born February 18, 1861 in Nordhausen (Thuringia), Germany.

Bergmann spent his childhood in Frankfurt am Main where he studied anatomy from 1879-1883. In 1883 he went to Karlsruhe to attend a school specialized in landscape painting. He then travelled throughout Germany, to Hungary, Holland, Belgium, Northern Scotland…, where he was mainly interested in zoological, atmospheric and landscape subjects. In 1896 he became a professor of animal painting in Düsseldorf. After seven years, he left Düsseldorf and settled in Strasbourg, where he built a workshop. In 1905, he was called to Karlsruhe, to the Academy of Arts. He was part of the Munich Secession visual artists association from the first years of its existence (1892); Member of the Academy of the Union of German Artists; collaborator of the 1899 group in Düsseldorf; founder of the Strasbourg Union of Artists; he participated in major exhibitions in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Dresden… as exhibitor, collaborator and judge. His main subjects were animals set in landscapes and his art is mainly associated with the naturalism, realism and romanticism movements. Some of his works can be seen in museums in Berlin, Karlsruhe and Cologne. Julius Bergmann died on January 15, 1940 in Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg). 

The original title of this work is ‘Schilfschneider’, meaning ‘The Reed Cutter’ in German.

Sources: Benezit, Dictionary of Artists,1999; Revue Alsacienne Illustrée, 190; Alice Bauer, Fédération des Sociétés d’Histoire et d’Archéologie d’Alsace, 1983.

Artist: Julius Bergmann (1861-1940).
Signed and dated lower right.
Medium: Oil on hardboard.
Condition: Very good condition.
Dimensions: 66 x 41 cm. / 26 x 16 ¼ in.
Frame: 78 x 53 cm. / 30 ¾ x 20 x ¾ in. Very good condition.
Origin: Germany.