Otto Frölicher
Born in 1840.
Died in 1890.
Otto Viktor Frölicher is documented as a painter active in the nineteenth century. He came from a bourgeois background in the Solothurn region and also lived in Olten; he was the son of Josef Frölicher, who was a member of the cantonal executive council between 1849 and 1856. His training included enrolment at Adolf Heinrich Lier’s school in Munich, a stage explicitly mentioned by the sources.
In Munich, he participated in local artistic networks: he was a member of the Kassandra group and the Allotria society, and served on the jury for the Glaspalast exhibitions on several occasions. He was also active as a teacher; Hermann Hunziker and Otto Gampert are cited among his pupils, and the notices indicate that he mentored Swiss artists in particular. His biography points to significant health problems: he contracted diphtheria at the age of thirty-nine and suffered lasting effects, and he was afflicted by cancer during the final eleven years of his life.
For the study of his life and work, the sources cited in the dossier include, in particular, Hermann Uhde‑Bernays’s biography (1922) and Roswitha Hohl‑Schild’s monographic thesis (University of Zurich, 1987).
