Wilhelm Schneider-Didam (1869 - 1923)

Portrait of the artist Wilhelm Degode

Signed lower right

Oil on canvas

100 x 68 cm. (39 ¼ x 26 ¾ in.)

Provenance:

Wilhelm Degode (1862-1931), Düsseldorf;

Thence by descent to Anke Degode, until 2022.

With his distinctive features, the Düsseldorf painter Wilhelm Degode turns to face the viewer. His arm languidly resting on the back of his chair, and holding an oversized palette in his left hand, the heavily bewhiskered artist is at work on a painting of his own, no doubt depicting a bucolic Rhine landscape.

Wilhelm Schneider-Didam’s engaging portrait is a testament to the friendship between these two painters from the Düsseldorf School, both of whom attended the Kunstakademie in the 1880s. At the Kunstakadmie, Schneider-Didam studied under Julius Roetig, whose influence can clearly be felt in the present work. After graduation in 1893, Scheider-Didam made his reputation thanks to his portraits of fellow artists, of which this painting is a particularly fine example. Interestingly, Schneider-Didam, together with Eugen Kampf, went on to run a private painting school for women.

A photograph of 1899 shows Degode at very much the same age as he appears in Schneider-Didam’s portrait. In both, Degode, seemingly with a twinkle in his eye, gives a wry-smile. With his large bow-tie, professorial spectacles, and well-groomed facial hair, Degode is every inch the fin-de-siècle artist.

Fig. 2, Photograph of William Degode, 1899