Portrait of Arthur Wasse

Benes Knüpfer 1848 - 1910

Summary

The artist, Arthur Wasse (1854–1930) left his home in Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester, after a disagreement with his father, who wanted him to go into the lucrative textile trade. Wasse studied at the Manchester School of Art and then at the Munich Academy. He returned to England, exhibiting in London and Manchester, but later settled in Rothenburg, Bavaria, from where he continued to send pictures to the annual exhibitions of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. At the Munich Academy, he met the Czech student Benes Knüpfer, who has here painted his friend Wasse in a typical Bohemian pose, complete with pipe, tankard and felt hat. Benes Knüpfer studied at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts (1868-70), then enrolled at the Munich Academy under Karl Piloty (1870-77). In 1879 he went to Rome, where he remained, with only occasional visits to Bohemia. It is probable that the portrait was painted in 1874, from a handwritten label on the back, which fits with the dates that Wasse and Knüpfer would have been in Munich together, and with Wasse's youthful appearance.