Panel Wilhelm Steinhausen “Crépuscule” after Alphonse Mucha ca. 1900

Wilhelm Steinhausen was a painter, illustrator, and draughtsman who studied at the academies of fine arts in Berlin and Karlsruhe. He was closely associated with his friend Hans Thoma and with members of the Kronberg painters’ colony. Today, Steinhausen is primarily known as a painter of religious subjects, although he also illustrated several operas as well as his own fairy-tale narratives.

In 1900, he participated in the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where he received an honourable mention. It is possible that Steinhausen encountered Alphonse Mucha’s motif “Crépuscule” there and subsequently produced the present work either for himself, as a gift, or as an artistic exercise. Remarkably, the dimensions of the motif correspond exactly to those of the printed version.