SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
A native of Kassel, August von Wille studied there before attending the Düsseldorf Academy. After marrying the animal painter Clara von Böttcher in 1859, he spent time in Weimar before returning to Düsseldorf, where he died in 1887. He worked across landscape, portraiture, genre painting and illustration; his son Fritz continued the family's artistic tradition.
Moonlit landscapes, inspired partly by seventeenth-century Dutch painting, form a characteristic part of his output. Ruins, isolated churches, monasteries and strolling figures animate Rhineland settings illuminated by nocturnal light. In his later pictures, drinkers appear against views of Bacharach or Trier. Positioned between late Romanticism and realistic observation, Wille thus combines the atmosphere of landscape with the narrative pleasures of genre painting and its attention to human activity.
This profile brings together identity references for August von Wille and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
Genève Enchères · Ketterer · Lempertz
References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.
Oil on canvas
Ansicht von Beilstein mit Soldaten vor einer Schänke
Öl auf Leinwand
Auction date : 2023-11-18
Published result : 1512 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 2500
View the lot at the auction house ↗
Oil on canvas
Vallée alpine
huile sur toile
Catalogue period : 2023-05-03
Published result : 550 CHF
Fees not specified in the available data
Estimate : CHF 500–700
View the lot at the auction house ↗Oil on canvas
Der Sängerstreit auf der Wartburg
Öl auf Leinwand
Auction date : 2014-11-21
Published result : 6000 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 4500
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
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