Early Life, Family and Training

Hans Stübner entered the world on August 21, 1900, in the Berlin-Friedrichshain district. He was born into a family where craft and lineage held a steady place; his father was Emil-Franz-Robert Stübner and his mother was Sofie-Anna-Klara Wagner. His grandfather, Karl-Robert Stübner, had earned his living as a cooper, a trade rooted in the practical shaping of wood. This background of manual skill seemed to linger in the air around the young boy as he began to find his own way through the creative arts.

In his youth, Hans Stübner sought to support himself through labor in the Lindhorst art workshops. It was during these formative years that he first began to translate his visions into tangible forms, creating his earliest original designs for woven wall hangings. This early engagement with texture and pattern provided a foundation for the formal studies that would follow. By November 1919, his path led him to the Vereinigten Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst in Berlin, where he was admitted to pursue a more disciplined education.

Within the walls of these institutions, he sought the guidance of masters to refine his developing hand. He studied under Professor Spiegel, a period of instruction that helped shape his understanding of the visual language. These years of study in Berlin were essential, marking the transition from a young man earning his way in workshops to a dedicated student of the fine arts.

Academic Training and Professional Career

His formal path in the arts led him to the Vereinigten Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst in Berlin, where he began his studies in November 1919. This period of learning continued as he progressed toward becoming a master student at the Preußische Akademie der Künste in 1929. There, he refined his craft under the guidance of Arthur Kampf and Ernst Christian Pfannschmidt. During the years of the National Socialist era, his professional standing was marked by his membership in the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste, and his presence in the art world was solidified through participation in thirty major group exhibitions.

The year 1936 brought a specific commission when he was tasked with designing illustrations for the program booklet of the Olympic Games in Berlin. Following the turbulence of the war years, his career shifted toward the instruction of others. In 1950, he received an appointment as a lecturer for Free Painting and Tapestry at the Staatliche Werkkunstschule Berlin. He remained a dedicated educator at this academy, holding his position until his retirement in 1966. Even after leaving the halls of the academy, he continued to live and work as a freelance painter in Berlin until his final days.

Technique and Artistic Style

The hand of the artist reveals itself through a certain urgency in his application of paint. In works such as Mann im Kahn, he embraced an expressionist approach, favoring a style that prioritized immediate feeling over meticulous precision. He applied oil to canvas with a quick, broad brushwork, allowing the texture of the strokes to remain visible and active upon the surface. This method suggests a man working with a sense of momentum, capturing the essence of his subject through decisive, sweeping movements rather than slow, layered refinement.

His choice of materials also varied according to the nature of his subjects. While canvas provided a sturdy ground for his more gestural compositions, he turned to linen for other endeavors. In his Jägerportrait, he utilized oil on linen to render the figure of a hunter. This choice of support, combined with the medium, allowed for a specific tactile quality in the portraiture, capturing the character of the man with a focused, observational eye. Whether working on the expansive scale of a landscape or the intimate dimensions of a portrait, his technique remained rooted in the physical presence of the paint itself.

Later Years and Death

Following the conclusion of the war, Stübner found himself in Waldsassen, where he remained resident after 1945. This period marked a transition in his life as he moved away from the formal academic structures of his earlier years. He eventually returned to the capital, settling in Berlin-Nikolassee. There, he spent his remaining years working as a freelance painter, continuing his practice in the quietude of the city's outskirts.

The artist remained in Berlin until his passing on December 16, 1973. His life's work and personal history are tied to the soil of the city where he lived and worked for so long. He was laid to rest in the Evangelischen Kirchhof Nikolassee in Berlin, leaving behind a legacy that is preserved through the Schulz-Stübner-Stiftung „Ein Leben mit Bildern“.