Adolf Maennchen

Theodor Gustav Alwin Adolf Maennchen was a German landscape and genre painter.

Life and work

He was born to Carl Maennchen, a Master tanner, and his wife, Emilie née Güntsche. His younger brother,, also became a painter.
After serving an apprenticeship as a decorative painter, he plied his trade as a wandering journeyman in Germany and Austria. During this extended period, he also spent some time at the , and took night classes at the teaching institute of the in Berlin. In 1883, he became a full-time student at the Berlin University of the Arts, which he attended until 1888. His instructors there included, Paul Thumann, Otto Knille and Eugen Bracht.
He continued to work as a decorative painter while studying and, upon graduating, was able to make a study trip to Italy and North Africa. He travelled whenever possible; visiting Switzerland, the Netherlands and France. In Paris, he attended the Académie Julian, where he took lessons from Jules-Joseph Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury.
In 1896, he was awarded a small gold medal at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung. He received another gold medal at the Exposition Universelle, and held a major exhibition at the Glaspalast in 1901.
From 1889 to 1893, he was a teacher at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle, then taught at the in Danzig until 1901. The following year, he was named a Professor and head of the drawing classes at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He held those positions until 1918.