Alphons Spring (1843-1908) was a genre painter of the Munich School and co-founder of the artists' society Allotria in Munich.
Alphons Spring, who wrote himself Alfons Spring from around 1878, was born in Liepaja in Latvia and studied at the art school and academy in Saint Petersburg.
He moved to Munich 1870 where he became a student of Professor Wilhelm Diez.
In 1863 he was accepted into the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
In 1869, he traveled to Tyrol and Munich with a scholarship from a Baltic German patron and probably visited the "First International Art Exhibition" in the Glass Palace.
On December 17, 1870, after two years of nomadic life, he returned to Munich and was enrolled at the Academy of Arts on January 10, 1871 in the class of Wilhelm Diez, who had just been appointed professor.
For a while he was a member of the Osternberg artists' colony.
In 1873 he was one of the founding members of the rebellious artists' society Allotria at the Bavarian Academy of Arts.
In June 1887 he received Bavarian citizenship and the right of residence in Munich.
He exhibited regularly at all major art exhibitions in Germany and won many medals.
His participation in the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889, which was curated for the German painting department by Adolph Menzel, is particularly noteworthy.
One of his paintings was also shown at the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893 ("The Fisherman's Home", WV 153).
His galleries were the Heinemann Gallery and the Helbing Gallery in Munich, the Stern Gallery in Düsseldorf and the Arnold Gallery in Dresden. According to their records, the paintings were in great demand.
Two sketchbooks with pencil drawings and around 400 oil paintings can be traced back to 2022.
The painting surfaces are wood, solidly processed in the style of icon painting, canvas, rarely cardboard.
The palette is reduced to the basic colors white, black, umber, ochre and green earth, carmine red, Parisian blue and Indian yellow.
He was known as a popular, quiet man amongst his colleagues, which is also why fame eluded him throughout his life.
The German National Gallery bought one of his paintings shortly before he died, and the Bavarian Museum shortly after.
Even today, Spring is considered an undervalued artist. | Source: © Deutsche Wikipedia
Alphons Spring (1843-1908) nacque a Liepāja in Lettonia e studiò alla scuola d'arte ed all'accademia di San Pietroburgo.
Si trasferì a Monaco nel 1870 dove divenne allievo del professor Wilhelm Diez.
Era conosciuto tra i suoi colleghi come un uomo popolare e tranquillo, motivo per cui la fama gli sfuggì per tutta la vita.
La Galleria Nazionale Tedesca acquistò uno dei suoi dipinti poco prima della sua morte, ed il Museo Bavarese poco dopo.