Stöwer, Willy |
| PAINTER, ENGINEER (GERMANY) |
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BORN 22 May 1864, Wolgast, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - DIED 31 May 1931, Berlin-Tegel: Gabrielstrasse 68 GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Kirchhof Jerusalem und Neue Kirche III, Mehringdamm 21 (Halleschen Tor), Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (2/2) |
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Son of a sea captain. He was trained as a metalworker and worked as an engineer at shipyards. At the same time he taught himself painting and soon he received commissions. In 1892 Henrietta Dettmann. She came from a wealthy family and this enabled him to concentrate on paiting. Emperor Wilhelm II became his patron and this helped his career as a naval painter enormously. Between 1905 and 1912 he accompanied the emperor on several voyages. His illustration of the sinking of the Titanic for "Die Gartenlaube" was especially popular. He also painted the emperor and this portrait hang in the emperor's room at the Achilleion on Corfu. After the emperor abdicated in 1918 his career was more or less over. He received a few more commissions from steamship lines but the world he had painted for so many years had disappeared. He work was mostly forgotten when he died at his villa in Berlin-Tegel in 1931. |
| Images |
 The graves of Willy Stöwer (front) and Adolph L'Arronge (back) at the Kirchhof Jerusalem und Neue Kirche III, Halleschen Tor, Kreuzberg, Berlin. Picture by Androom (08 Apr 2003) |
