Julius Bretz, a German painter of landscapes and still lifes and a graphic artist, initially studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf but was dismissed as 'untalented' after just a short while. He then trained as a landscape painter under Helmuth Liesegang and spent one year, 1890, studying in Holland, where he worked with the marine artist Hendrik Willem Mesdag and met the landscape painters Jacob and Willem Maris. After Holland and trips to Paris, he returned to Düsseldorf following a fire at his house near Siegburg in 1902 which destroyed a large proportion of his early work. In 1909 he helped draft the founding manifesto of the 'Sonderbund Westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler' and took part in the Sonderbund's annual exhibitions in...