Otto Dill (b. 1884 / d. 1957)

Otto Dill was born on June 4, 1884 in Neustade, Germany.

Dill first had an apprenticeship as a bookseller and publisher, before he studied painting. He attended Munich Academy from 1908 to 1914. He was a master student of the famous animal painter Henry of reins.

In 1914 to 1916, Dill volunteered in the Bavarian War Ministry. Two years before the war ended, he married Emmy Dorothea Dill Scheidt. Working as a freelance artist, in 1917 he was represented with a first exhibition in Munich Glass Palace. Dill became a member of the Munich Secession in 1922. With other artists of the association, he was part of various exhibitions.

Dill was awarded the title of professor in 1924. Through his travels to North Africa, Italy, France and Spain, Dill gain many inspirations for his numerous paintings and drawings. Due to his hundreds of his representations of lions he earned the nickname "Lion-Dill".

Dill returned to Neustadt from Munich in 1930, where he painted mostly landscapes. In 1941, during World War II he moved to Bad Durkheim. A large collection of his works were destroyed in the bomb attack in Ludwigshafen in 1943. During this difficult time, Dill often created drawings for food.

The town of Bad Durkheim made Dill an honorary citizen in 1949. That year he was also made an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and an honorary member of the Society of the Heinrich-von-rein-friends in Woerth. In his home town of Neustadt on the Wine Route, a museum which is solely dedicated to his work was opened in 2001.

From 1941 until his death in 1957, Dill lived and worked in Bad Durkheim.

Sources Include:
www.kettererkunst.com
www.artfinding.com

Otto Dill was born in 1884, in Neustadt.

Between 1908 and 1914, he studied painting at the academy in Munich. There, he was a master student of the renowned animal painter Heinrich von Zügel. In the summer of 1917, the artist took part in an exhibition at the Glaspalast in Munich.

As a member of the Munich Secession, further exhibitions soon followed. Dill extensively traveled through North Africa, Italy, France, and Spain. He rendered the impressions gained there in his paintings and drawings – desert and Bedouin themes as well as numerous animal representations.

In 1930, the artist moved to Neustadt an der Weinstraße were Dill created primarily landscapes. During the Second World War, a large collection of his work was destroyed in a bomb attack.

Otto Dill passed away in 1957. A museum in his native town of Neustadt, opened in 2001. It was solely dedicated to the work of Otto Dill.

Otto Dill was an animal and landscape painter, draftsman and lithographer.