Wilhelm Trübner
Wilhelm Trübner (February 3, 1851 – December 21, 1917) was a German realist painter of the circle of Wilhelm Leibl.
Also recorded as Heinrich Wilhelm Trubner · Wilhelm Trubner · W. Trübner · professor wilhelm trubner
Wilhelm Trübner

Wilhelm Trübner · [1] · Public domain
- Name
- Wilhelm Trübner
- Born
- 3 February 1851
- Birthplace
- Heidelberg, Grand Duchy of Baden
- Died
- 21 December 1917
- Place of death
- Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire
- Field
- Painting
- Movement
- Realism
- Spouse
- Alice Trübner née Auerbach[1]
- Nationality
- Grand Duchy of Baden.
- Occupation
- painter and university teacher.
- Fields
- painting.
- Education
- Academy of Fine Arts and Munich.
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Documentary summary
Wilhelm Trübner (February 3, 1851 – December 21, 1917) was a German realist painter of the circle of Wilhelm Leibl.
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Wilhelm Trübner (1851–1917) was a painter and university teacher and a national of the Grand Duchy of Baden. Born in Heidelberg, the painter died in Karlsruhe.
Wilhelm Trübner studied at Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. The painter worked for Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe and was a member of Berlin Secession and Leibl-Kreis. Wilhelm Trübner worked in Munich. The painter was active in painting.
Works include On the Sofa. Genres include portrait. Languages used include German. Works by Wilhelm Trübner are held at Auckland Art Gallery, Belvedere and Hessen Kassel Heritage, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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Authority files
gnd · 1091212481 · wikidata · Q461271 · wikipedia · Wilhelm Trübner
In this article
Biography
Biography
Wilhelm Trübner studied at Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. The recorded working language is German. The field of work recorded is painting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are Munich. Employment is recorded with Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe. Works named in the authority record are On the Sofa. Work by Wilhelm Trübner is recorded in the collections of Belvedere, Städel Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Wilhelm Trübner • Born — 3 February 1851 • Birthplace — Heidelberg, Grand Duchy of Baden • Died — 21 December 1917 • Place of death — Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire • Field — Painting • Movement — Realism • Spouse — Alice Trübner née Auerbach[1]
Biography
Biography
Trübner was born in Heidelberg. He was the third son of a silver- and goldsmith, Johann Georg Trübner, and his wife Anna Maria.[2] In 1867 he began training as a goldsmith in Hanau, and met classicist painter Anselm Feuerbach who encouraged him to study painting. In that year he began studies at the Kunstschule in Karlsruhe under Karl Friedrich Schick. He was influenced by artists he met in Karlsruhe, such as Hans Canon and Feodor Dietz.[3] In 1869 he began studying at the Kunstacademie in Munich, where he was greatly impressed by an international exhibition of paintings by Leibl and Gustave Courbet. Courbet visited Munich in 1869, not only exhibiting his work but demonstrating his alla prima method of working quickly from nature in public performances.[4] This had an immediate impact on many of the city's young artists, who found Courbet's approach an invigorating alternative to the shopworn academic tradition. • Illustration — Scuffling Boys (1872) In 1870 he made the acquaintance of Carl Schuch and Albert Lang. In August 1871, the three artists painted landscapes together during hikes in Hohenschwangau and Bernried, where they met Leibl. In 1872 Trübner met Hans Thoma, another German painter who greatly admired the unsentimental realism of Wilhelm Leibl. Together Trübner, Schuch, Lang, and Thoma formed the core of the group of artists known as the "Leibl circle". • Illustration — Carpenters on the Banks of Wessling Lake (1876) The early 1870s were a period of discovery for Trübner. He travelled to Italy, Holland and Belgium, and in Paris encountered the art of Manet, whose influence can be seen in the spontaneous yet restrained style of Trübner's portraits and landscapes. According to art historian Eberhard Ruhmer, "Trübner reached his relatively brief artistic peak between 1872 and 1876, during which time he made some of the most important contributions to the Leibl circle’s achievement and produced the most effective examples of what he called 'purist painting'" – paintings in which formal concerns take precedence over subject. His works of this period, such as On the Sofa (1872) and Carpenters on the Banks of Wessling Lake (1876), depict prosaic scenes with a somber realism and subdued color. Subsequently, Trübner attempted to achieve greater success by brightening his palette, and he frequently painted historical and literary subjects. He published writings on art theory in 1892 and 1898, which express above all the idea that "beauty must lie in the painting itself, not in the subject".[5] By urging the viewer to discover beauty in a painting's formal values, its colors, proportions, and surface, Trübner advanced a philosophy of "art for art's sake". In 1901 he joined the recently formed Berlin Secession,[6] at the time Germany's most important forum for the exhibition of avant-garde art. From 1903 until his death in 1917 he was a professor at the Academy of Arts in Karlsruhe, also serving as director from 1904 to 1910.[7] Trübner's paintings are in many public collections, especially in Germany, including the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.
Gallery
Gallery
• Illustration — Self portrait (1902) • Illustration — On the Sofa (1872) • Illustration — Silver and Roses (1873) • Illustration — Great Dane with Sausages: "Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant" (1877) • Illustration — Dante's Inferno (1880) • Illustration — The Death of Pope Alexander VI (1883) • Illustration — Gorgon (1891) • Illustration — Ermatingen am Bodensee (1894), gouache on paper • Illustration — Portrait of a Nun in a Summer Garden (ca. 1900) • Illustration — Karl Haberstock (1914) • Illustration — Aussichtsplatz am Starnberger See (1911)
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
Trübner, professor wilhelm trubner and Trubner. His recorded language was German. He married Alice Trübner. One child is recorded: Jörg Trübner.
Identity
Identity
Career and activity. Trübner worked in painting. He was employed by Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe. He belonged to Berlin Secession and Leibl-Kreis. He worked at Munich.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1851
Wilhelm Trübner born at Heidelberg.
1917
Wilhelm Trübner died at Karlsruhe.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Heidelberg.
Birth place
Karlsruhe.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q461271: Wilhelm Trübner
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Wilhelm Trübner”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 1091212481, Wilhelm Trübner (1951 : Heidelberg).
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Trübner, Alice. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 2011. 978-0-19-977378-7.
- 2.Bahns et al. 1994, p. 73.
- 3.Ruhmer, E. (2003, January 01). "Trübner, (Heinrich) Wilhelm". Grove Art Online.
- 4.Forster-Hahn et al. 2001, p. 155
- 5.Forster-Hahn et al. 2001, p. 154.
- 6.Bahns et al. 1994, p. 76.
- 7.Bahns et al. 1994, pp. 76–77.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 1091212481, Wilhelm Trübner (1951 : Heidelberg).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q461271: Wilhelm TrübnerWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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