Wiesbaden has never had the same educational effect on artists as the Düsseldorf or Munich schools of painting. Nor did an artists' colony develop here at any time, such as in Worpswede, Willingshausen in Hesse or nearby Kronberg. Wiesbaden's cultural character was already shaped in the early 19th century. Two factors were decisive for this, namely the fact that this city was both the seat of government and a spa town.

As early as 1850, Hofrat Philipp Leyendecker, then chairman of the Nassauischer Kunstverein e.V., complained that promising young artistic talents who had turned to the city for support had to be put off. While the spa business promoted theater and concerts, the visual arts remained an accompanying attitude. Many of the artists listed below are represented with works in the Museum Wiesbaden. A * after the name refers to works by the respective artist in the Landesmuseum.

When Prince Georg August Samuel zu Nassau decorated the baroque Biebrich Palace in the 18th century, the first non-native artistic personalities became visible in Wiesbaden. The first known painter born in Wiesbaden was Johann Daniel Bager* (1734-1815), a portrait, genre, landscape and fruit painter. He came from a widespread family of artists in Wiesbaden. In order to make a living from his profession, he left his hometown, like many other artists after him. He worked as a teacher in Frankfurt. In his autobiography "Aus meinem Leben. Poetry and Truth", Johann Wolfgang von Goethe mentions him as one of the artists who worked for his father and the royal lieutenant Count François de Théas de Thoranc. Heinrich Sebastian Hüsgen, the Frankfurt art collector and great connoisseur of Frankfurt art history of his time, praised Bager in a treatise on the artists of Frankfurt as an important portraitist and painter of still lifes.

Around 1800, under Prince Karl Wilhelm zu Nassau-Usingen, increased building activity began in Wiesbaden, which was intended to expand and beautify the cityscape. Along with the spa guests came painters, who offered their services as portraitists and their products - still lifes and landscapes - through advertisements in the newspapers. The medalist Philipp Zollmann (1785-1866) worked successfully in the service of Duke Wilhelm zu Nassau, who had elevated Wiesbaden to the capital of the new duchy in 1816. In 1808/09, he received financial support from the Duke, which enabled him to train in Durlach near Karlsruhe with the Baden court die cutter Johann Martin Bückle. In 1810, he confidently called himself "Metailleur Zollmann von Wiesbaden" and asked his sovereign for support so that he could continue his studies in Paris. When he returned to Wiesbaden, he became a master mint maker and worked for the dukes of Nassau for the rest of his life.

The painter Ernst Lotichius* (1787-1876) started the tradition of Wiesbaden artists studying at the Düsseldorf Academy. He came from Wiesbaden-Klarenthal and his father was a ducal Nassau domain councillor. His painting was also in demand elsewhere, and in 1839 and 1846 he was able to exhibit at the then famous Rhein. Kunstverein in Mainz, which was famous at the time. He worked for longer periods in Kronberg im Taunus, in Munich and in America. He spent the rest of his life in Wiesbaden.

Otto Reinhold Jacobi* (1812-1901) is an artist who is almost forgotten in this country today. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1830 and then at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art. In 1837, he was appointed court painter to Wiesbaden by Duchess Pauline Friederike zu Nassau. In those years, Jacobi not only gave drawing lessons to the Nassau princesses, but also discovered the painterly talent of the young Ludwig Knaus, whom he recommended to study at the Düsseldorf Academy. Although Jacobi was highly regarded as a landscape and genre painter in Wiesbaden, he did not receive any lucrative commissions. This was probably the real reason why he emigrated to Canada in 1860. He initially settled in Montreal. His career began when he became a teacher at the Ontario College of Art & Design, the largest and oldest university for art. He exhibited his works annually at the Art Association of Montreal and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and over the years he became one of the most successful painters in the country. In 1890, he became president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

August de Laspée* also studied painting at the Düsseldorf Academy. Ludwig Knaus held him in high esteem, as can be seen from an appraisal that Knaus issued to his fellow painter in 1862 so that he could find a permanent position as "Conservator" of the Duchy of Nassau Picture Gallery. De Laspée was of the opinion that the school could not train artists, because one was born an artist. The school could only be a safe guide for talent. Ludwig Knaus*, to whom Duke Adolph zu Nassau "only gave a single modest commission", also turned his back on Wiesbaden and was successful with his genre painting, first in Düsseldorf, then in Berlin, which he chose as his adopted home. At the same age as Knaus, Adolf Seel* was also trained at the Düsseldorf Academy. He travelled to the Orient in 1870/71 and 1873/74 and subsequently specialized in the depiction of Arab architecture with figurative staffage. With the photographic precision of his painting, he helped to popularize so-called Oriental painting.

The "Society of Friends of Fine Arts in the Duchy of Nassau", which was founded on July 16, 1847, was to become important for the future art scene in Wiesbaden. The later Nassauischer Kunstverein e.V. was entrusted with the supervision of the museum's painting collection in 1929. Works by the sculptor Karl Hoffmann (1816-1872) can still be found in public spaces today. He had the good fortune to be trained as a sculptor in the workshop of Bertel Thorvaldsen in Rome on a scholarship from the Nassau state. In 1842, he was commissioned to create the group of figures of Hygieia, the goddess of health, in Carrara marble for Wiesbaden's Kochbrunnen f ountain on Kranzplatz. Hoffmann also created the sculptures in St. Boniface's Church, the crucifixion group above the ambulatory in the apse and the two statues of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Teresa of Avila under the arches of the ambulatory.

Emil Alexander Hopfgarten, originally a Berlin sculptor, became one of Wiesbaden's most important sculptors. His cousin, August Ferdinand Hopfgarten (1807-1896), only worked in Wiesbaden for a short time. He painted the main dome and the vaulted bays of the Russian Church in fresco technique before returning to Berlin. Alongside Alexej von Jawlensky, Carl Timoleon von Neff is the second Russian painter from whom Wiesbaden can boast a significant work, namely the iconostasis in the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Elisabeth. The poor farmer's son Kaspar Kögler* from the Westerwald was once highly respected in Wiesbaden, and not just as a painter. He became honorary chairman of the Nassau Art Association and artistic advisor to the city.

The cultural climate in the up-and-coming city was also favorable for another non-native artist, the Swiss sculptor and modeler Johann Jacob Höppli. In 1850, he founded his "Thonwaaren und Fayencen-Fabrik" at Wörthstraße 4-6. Other artists who left their mark in Wiesbaden in the 19th century include the sculptors Karl Philipp Keil (1838-1889), Hermann Schies and Ludwig Schwanthaler (1802-1848), as well as the painters Ludwig Pose (1786-1840/41), Friedrich Wilhelm Pose (1793-1870), Alfred Rethel (1816-1859) and Eduard Jakob von Steinle (1810-1886). When Nassau became Prussian in 1866, the previously unsatisfactory acceptance of visual artists did not change. The visits of Kaiser Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II to Wiesbaden brought glittering balls and magnificent theater performances to the Kurhaus. Poets, writers and composers were welcome, as they were able to add highlights to social events, for which the visual arts were obviously less suited. The spa town increasingly developed into a fashionable world spa, where the May Festival was established in 1896.

But Wilhelm II, who regarded modern art in Berlin as "gutter art" anyway, did not expect young artists to receive any support in Wiesbaden either. The frescoes of the "Four Seasons" in the Shell Hall of the new Kurhaus built in 1904-06, which were painted by Fritz Erler* and Alexander von Salzmann (1870-1933), a friend of Jawlensky, are proof of this. When the Emperor saw these paintings, he was displeased by their modernity. It was only during the First World War that Erler's now tendentious art was recognized by the last German monarch.

James Pitcairn-Knowles was an internationally educated artist of Scottish descent who came to Wiesbaden with his parents at the age of nine. He was supposed to follow in his father's footsteps and work in the wool trade, but was eventually able to realize his desire to become an artist. Richard Hartmann (1869-1924), who had studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1890-92, lived in Worpswede from 1902-09. There he painted pictures that are characteristic of this artists' colony in terms of style and motif. From 1909, he ran his own painting school in Wertheim before settling in Wiesbaden in 1914.

Before the First World War, various artists were commissioned by the city to decorate the Wiesbaden Museum, e.g. the decorative paintings in various interior rooms were created by Hans Völcker. The dome of the entrance octagon was decorated with mosaics by Max Unold (1885-1964) and the sculptor Hermann Hahn (1868-1942) created the Goethe monument, which was erected on the top landing of the museum staircase. The figures and reliefs on the façades were created by the busy sculptor Carl Wilhelm Bierbrauer.

The painter Carl Watzelhan (1867-1942) was once of supra-regional importance. He had already become a Wiesbadener as a child. Like Lotichius, de Laspée, Seel and Knaus, he also attended the Düsseldorf Art Academy to learn his craft. He became a sought-after landscape painter and portraitist who was exhibited not only in Berlin and Munich. Commissions also took him to North America and Sweden. Stylistically, his painting was initially characterized by the realism of the Düsseldorf School, from which he gradually moved away and increasingly oriented himself towards Art Nouveau and even more recent art movements.

Hans Christiansen* is one of the most important Wiesbaden painters. As a pioneer of Art Nouveau, Christiansen achieved extraordinary things. He designed stained glass, furniture, ceramics and jewelry. From 1911, Christiansen taught at the School of Arts and Crafts in Wiesbaden. He was banned from painting in 1933. Louis Seel*, whose painting in Paris was influenced by the Orphism of Robert Delaunay, is another outstanding figure in Wiesbaden's recent art history. Visitors to the Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme will encounter precious, colorful majolica sculptures by Josef Vinecký in the entrance area. The Czech sculptor was head of Henry van de Velde's ceramic workshop (1863-1957). He later worked at the Bauhaus and was involved in decorating the Werkbund Estate in Breslau, which was founded in 1929, before becoming a professor in Bratislava in 1937.

The year 1918 marked a turning point in cultural life. The Nassauischer Kunstverein became increasingly involved in the visual arts, which prompted some artists to work in Wiesbaden and stay there permanently. Otto Ritschl* from Erfurt, for example, chose Wiesbaden as his place of work, as did Alo Altripp*. Both are outstanding Wiesbaden painters of the 20th century. Thanks to the coincidence of financial success in 1921 during a group exhibition at the Nassauischer Kunstverein, the then 56-year-old Russian Alexej von Jawlensky* settled in Wiesbaden.

Other artists from the first half of the 20th century include the painters Paul Dahlen (1881-1954), Alois Erbach, Edmund Fabry*, Carl Jacob Frankenbach, Karl Otto Hy, Oskar Kolb, Willy Mulot, Adolf Presber, Franz Theodor Schütt and Vincent Weber.