Robert Sterl

Robert Hermann Sterl (23 June 1867 – 10 January 1932) was a German painter and graphic artist.

Life

Sterl was born in Großdobritz, now part of

After leaving Pauwels' studio, he worked as a landscape painter and portraitist and, until 1904, operated a private painting school for women. In 1893, he became one of the founding members of the Dresden Secession. He was appointed a Professor at the Academy in 1906, where he taught until 1931,^[1] and became an associate member of the Berlin Secession in 1909. From 1913 to 1930, he was a member of the Dresdner Galeriekommission and, from 1920, had a seat on the Gallery Advisory Board, both of which positions enabled him to help young artists. When Gotthardt Kuehl died in 1915, Sterl took over his Master Class. During World War I, he worked as a war painter, on the Western Front in 1915 and the southern front in the Dolomites in 1917.^[1] After the war, he bought a house in Struppen and built a spacious studio there.

Work and legacy

In addition to the usual impressionist subject matter, he painted musicians and workers, especially

He died in Struppen after a long illness and was buried at his home, bequeathing his estate to the Academy for the purpose of discovering and promoting new artists. The "Robert and Helene Sterl Foundation" was created just before his death in 1931 and, since 1981, the home has been operated as a museum and research facility.^[1] Beginning in 1997, the Foundation and related organizations have awarded the "Robert Sterl Prize" to a master student at the Academy. The prize includes €3,000 and an exhibit at the museum.^[2]

Selected works

• 
  Portrait of Wastl (1903)
• 
  Portrait of Christian Georg Schmorl (1921)
• 
  Portrait of Arthur Nikisch (1910)
• 
  The Quarrymen (1911)
• 
  Dredging the Elbe (1905)
• 
  Harvest Drink (1903)

References

Further reading

• Robert Sterl und die Kinder, Gemälde, Graphiken und Zeichnungen im Robert-Sterl-Haus, Text by Horst Zimmermann. Guide book, Sammelstiftungen des Bezirkes Dresden, 1998.
• Robert-Sterl-Haus, Naundorf/Struppen, Sächsische Museen, Vol.14, Sächsische Landesstelle für Museumswesen, Joachim Voigtmann, Berlin 2004,
  ISBN 3-422-03103-0
  .
• Robert Sterl: Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde und Ölskizzen, edited by Kristina Popova with Birgit Dalbajewa and Gisbert Porstmann, Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2011,
  ISBN 978-3-942422-63-5
  .
• Horst Zimmermann: Der Maler Robert Sterl: Leben und Werk in Briefen und Selbstzeugnissen, Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2011,
  ISBN 978-3-942422-62-8
  .

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Sterl.

• Robert-Sterl-Haus, museum website
• Drawings by Sterl @ Deutsche Fotothek
• "Works by Robert Sterl". Zeno.org (in German).
• Literature by and about Robert Sterl in the German National Library catalogue