The Life and Artistic Journey of Hermann Mühlen
Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, Hermann Mühlen was a painter, artist, and draftsperson. His formal training began with an apprenticeship under the fresco and church painter Fritz Stummel in Kevelaer. He was later admitted to the Düsseldorf Art Academy and studied at the Düsseldorf School of Arts and Crafts. In 1907, he moved to Munich, where he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, studying drawing under Angelo Jank and Ludwig von Herterich. His travels through France, Belgium, Holland, and Italy allowed him to become acquainted with various currents of modern art. Mühlen was a member of the artist association Das Junge Rheinland, founded in 1919, and exhibited regularly in the Rhineland and Munich.
In 1920, Mühlen married the painter Josefine Maria Therese Schmid. The couple lived in Ohlstadt for a period, where their daughters, Annemarie Gertrud and Emilie Josephine, were born. During their time in Ohlstadt, Mühlen created expressionistic figure compositions, some of which included religious themes. The family later returned to Munich, where he maintained an atelier in the Neuhausen-Nymphenburg district. His life and work faced significant challenges, including the loss of several paintings in a fire at the Glaspalast in 1931 and the destruction of much of his work due to war damage in 1943 and 1944.
Artistic Style and Subject Matter
Mühlen’s diverse body of work encompasses several genres, including landscapes, figure paintings, still lifes, and portraits. His compositions often reflected specific stylistic influences: his landscapes and still lifes showed the influence of Cézanne, while his figure compositions and nudes exhibited qualities of the French style of the 1920s and Art Deco. His later works were characterized by abstraction and a luminous use of color. In addition to his canvases, he also designed murals and created portraits, such as his 1931 depiction of the sculptor Karl Kroher.
His repertoire included:
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