August Rieper 

Biography of August Rieper  ( 1865-1940 )

August Rieper was born in Hamburg on November 17, 1865, where he received his first drawing lessons at the trade school. In 1884, he went to Munich to study for a few months at the Academy of Fine Arts, but then decided to abandon his studies in favor of self-taught studies of the Old Masters. He exhibited his first works in 1887, attracting keen interest from established local artists, including the “princes of Munich painting” Friedrich von Kaulbach, Franz von Lenbach and Franz von Stuck. These early successes enabled him to befriend von Kaulbach - appointed director of the Munich Academy of Fine Arts in 1886 - and Rudolf von Seitz, who gave him invaluable advice. Through them, he also met his contemporary Franz von Stuck, whose influence is particularly visible in Rieper's Symbolist work. This led to a close friendship between the two men and a real artistic complicity. They both embarked on representations of Medusa, an inspiring and emblematic figure from mythology.

In 1888, he presented works for the first time at the International Art Exhibition in Munich's Glaspalast, as well as in Hamburg, Vienna, Dresden and Berlin.
He resumed his studies at the Munich Academy under his friend von Sietz in 1898. For many years, Rieper was a member of the State Commission for Restoration Affairs at the Bavarian State Gallery and of the Munich Artists' Cooperative, which enabled him to hold a temporary exhibition at the city's National Museum in 1928.

Many of his paintings were purchased by Kaiser Wilhelm II and also by the heir to the Austrian throne Franz Ferdinand.