4469 - Willy Orth, Swineherd near Dachau

Willy Orth, Swineherd near Dachau A scantily clad young man reclining in a summer landscape against the backdrop of Dachau, tending pigs; the painter, who primarily created religious subjects, appears here to be depicting the biblical story of ‘The Prodigal Son’ against the backdrop of his native Dachau. In 1920, Orth contributed an oil painting entitled ‘The Prodigal Son’ in the exhibition at Munich’s Glaspalast (copy of the catalogue page enclosed); it is possible that this painting is the very one from the Munich exhibition. It features impasto and partially glazed brushwork, oil on canvas, signed and inscribed ‘W. Orth Dachau’, some signs of wear, framed, inner dimensions approx. 62 x 73 cm. Artist information: actually Johann Wilhelm Orth; according to Grieb, also Johann Michael Orth; known as John William Orth in the USA; German-American painter, draughtsman, illustrator and graphic artist (1889, Marktsteft in Lower Franconia - 1957, Munich, or 1976, Santa Ana, California), spent his childhood in Nuremberg; from 1905 a pupil at the Nuremberg School of Applied Arts; studied from 1907 at the Munich Academy under Gabriel von Hackl; a pupil of Hugo von Habermann in Munich; further training in Paris; undertook study tours throughout Europe; recorded as working in Nuremberg around 1913-14; made his first brief stay in Dachau in 1906, lived in Dachau from 1914 to 1924; from 1919 a member of the Dachau Artists’ Group; took part in the exhibitions at the Munich Glaspalast from 1920 to 1924; member of the Munich Artists’ Cooperative; emigrated to the USA around 1924 and worked in Kansas City and Holly; source: Vollmer, Saur, *Bio-Bibliographical Artists’ Encyclopaedia*, *Who’s Who in American Art* 1936/37, Register of the Munich Academy, Bruckmann, *Munich Painters of the 19th/20th Centuries*, Grieb, *Nuremberg Artists’ Encyclopaedia*; Falk, Ries, Thiemann-Stoedtner-Hanke, *Dachau Painters*; Reitmeier, *Dachau: A Book of Art and Images*; Glaspalast catalogues and the internet.