Berthold woltz biography of rory

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Woltze created a sense of light, for example, the cast shadow on the inside of the carriage and other darker areas, which creates a contrast in color value. 

Color in The Irritating Gentleman (1874) by Berthold Woltze; Berthold Woltze, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Texture

Some of Berthold Woltze’s brushstrokes are physically visible on the canvas of his painting The Irritating Gentleman, for example, notice them on the gentleman’s hat and suit or on the girl’s white handkerchief.

Woltze likely sought education and then employment in Weimar, the city in which he resided for the rest of his life. 1860), Good Advice is Expensive! (1873), and The Letter (before 1896).

Good Advice Is Expensive! (1873) by Berthold Woltze; Berthold Woltze, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Irritating Gentleman (1874) by Berthold Woltze in Context

The Irritating Gentleman analysis will start with a socio-historical overview of when it was painted, providing more information about the type of painting this was.

His life's work would later be characterized by an innate ability to capture the essence of his subjects, whether in genre, portrait, or illustration. In the 1880s, it would claim the largest readership of any regular publication in the world.

Its target demographic was the German middle class; it wished to be a family paper, indeed one that would be read aloud in the family (a not-common practice at the time).
Berthold Woltze specialized in genre scenes, most commonly involving women and often based on an identifiable circumstance which on its own implied a story.

Berthold Woltze’s Paintings

Several of his paintings centre around a letter: news from a family member in America, disconcerting bad news, news possibly pilfered by a postman.

While some of these visions contain an undeniable element of tension — such as The Letter, in which a young mother leans on a wall with a vacant expression, having just read the contents of a letter, her little daughter demanding her attention — others are simple snapshots of life caught from aside in which the social circumstance is more suggestive than anything the human characters are doing or expressing — such as the again undated In the Tavern.

The Annoying Gentleman

But in the mostly obscure career of Berthold Woltze without any doubt, the most famous artwork is The Annoying Gentleman of 1874, also known in English as The Irritating Gentlemen, The Annoying Cavalier in mimicry of the German Der lästige Kavalier.

The Annoying Gentleman portrays a train carriage scene in which a young woman dressed in black — either in mourning or out of exceptional reserve — is looking us, the spectators, in the eye while a self-satisfied man, fashionably dressed, protrudes above the partition behind her with an insinuating smile, as if to engage her in a flirt.

What gives pause to the viewer is the quick realization that something human is amiss in this excellent genre composition.

Weimar ‘74”. Some of the lines are more geometric, for example, the straight vertical and horizontal lines that delineate the inside of the carriage’s structure. Something of this conception, taught at the Weimar School, is to be found in Woltze.

Employment at The Gartenlaube

At the same time, in the 1870s, Woltze is a contributor, mainly in the capacity of illustrator, to the Gartenlaube.

There is implied texture from the brushstrokes. She has specialized in painting analysis and is covering most of our painting analysis.

Learn more about Alicia du Plessis and the Art in Context Team.