Adolf Dressler (Breslau, 1833 – 1881)
Italian Coast Landscape
Material: Oil on canvas
Dimension: 65 x 100 cm
Frame: Yes
Biography
Adolf Dressler was a German painter. He is considered the founder of Silesian landscape painting.Adolf Dressler was the son of Joseph Wilhelm Dressler and his wife Auguste, née Reich. From 1849 to 1853, he received his first art lessons from the Breslau artists Johann Heinrich Christoph König and Ernst Resch.
In 1855, he exhibited two paintings at the Silesian Art Association’s exhibition, which were purchased by the association. With this money, Dressler was able to continue his studies with Jakob Becker in Frankfurt am Main. There he befriended his fellow student Anton Burger, with whom he moved to Kronberg im Taunus in 1858 to join the Kronberg artists’ colony.In 1864, Dressler returned to Breslau and shortly afterwards married Luise Engelmann from Rohrlach (now Trzcińsko) near Hirschberg. Their son Hans Dressler also became a painter.
Collection
Dressler primarily painted landscapes, which he exhibited in Breslau, Dresden, and Berlin. In 1870, he was commissioned by the industrialist von Schaffgotsch to create four murals for Koppitz Castle (destroyed by arson in 1958). Emperor Wilhelm I purchased two of Dressler’s paintings for his collections.
In 1879, he was appointed head of the landscape painting studio at the newly founded Museum of Fine Arts in Breslau. Commissioned by the city of Breslau, he created a 7 x 20 m panoramic painting of the Giant Mountains, which was completed in 1881. It later came into the possession of a Hamburg businessman who moved it to the Prince Heinrich Lodge, where it burned down along with the lodge at the end of World War II.
Adolf Dressler is considered the founder of Silesian landscape painting.
Dressler was buried in the Maria Magdalena Cemetery in Breslau (destroyed after 1945). His works can be found in the National Museum in Wrocław and in the Karkonosze Museum in Jelenia Górze (Polish: Muzeum Karkonoskie w Jeleniej Górze).
