TRÜBNER, Wilhelm (Heidelberg, 1851 – Karlsruhe, 1917)
Trübner started his career as a goldsmith. In 1867, encouraged by Anselm Feuerbach, he began studying painting at the Karlsruher Kunstschule. In Karlsruhe, although outside the School, he met the painter Hans Canon. In 1869 he moved to Munich, where he entered the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, and was taught by Alexander Wagner. At the end of the year, thanks to a travel grant, Trübner visited various galleries in Frankfurt, Kassel, Weimar, Gotha, Brunswick, Dresden and Berlin. In 1870 he continued his studies in Munich with Wilhelm Diez, becoming a close friend of his fellow students Carl Schuch and Albert Lang. Together, in the summer of 1871, they went to paint in Bernried, by Lake Starnberg, under the tutorship of the German naturalist painter Wilhelm Leibl. Encouraged by Leibl, the three friends left the academy that same year and shared a rented studio, becoming part of the group of painters known as the “Leibl Circle”. In 1872, Trübner met the painter Hans Thoma, who—together with Leibl—had a strong influence on his first landscapes, painted in dark hues and thick impasto. During those years, Trübner also travelled around Italy (1872) and visited Brussels and The Hague (1874) in the company of Schuch.
After returning from his military service in 1875, Trübner continued to work in Munich with short trips abroad, like the one made to Paris in 1879 to attend the Exposition Universelle. In 1884–1885, he lived for almost a whole year in London, where he befriended Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Hubert Herkomer and Frederic Leighton. The following years his art moved towards Impressionism, which earned him the name of “painter of colour splashes”. In 1889 he was granted a distinction at the Paris Universal Exhibition, and in 1892 he received a prize at the Chicago International Exhibition. Around 1891, Trübner met and befriended Max Lieberman and Lovis Corinth. In 1892 he was one of the founder members of the Munich Secession. The following year, together with other artists like Behrens, Corinth, Eckmann, Heine, Schlittgen, Olde and Strathmann, he moved away from the Munich Secession and founded the Freie Vereinigung München.
Trübner was granted a professorship at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt in 1896. In 1903 he returned to Karlsruhe, where he taught at the Kunstschule, being appointed director in 1904 and 1910. In 1911, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, an important retrospective exhibition of his work was held in Karlsruhe. Trübner died in Karlsruhe on 21 December 1917, shortly after having been appointed professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Berlin, a post he never took up.
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