Hugo Othmar Miethke
Hugo Othmar Miethke, also known as H.O. Miethke, was a German art dealer who established an art gallery in Vienna, Austria.
Early life
Hugo Hermann Werner Othmar Miethke was born on 29 July 1834 in Potsdam, Brandenburg, Kingdom of Prussia.Career
Hugo Othmar Miethke partnered with Carl Josef Wawra in 1861 to establish 'Miethke & Wawra,' an art dealership in Vienna, Austria. After more than a decade, the art dealers ended their business partnership, with the Commercial Courts of Vienna recording its removal from the registry by February 1874. Miethke, as the sole proprietor of the business, established it under his own name as Galerie H.O. Miethke.By 1876, the art dealer was set up on Plankengasse 6 in Vienna. In February 1886, the Commercial Court of Vienna officially appointed and certified him as a master exhibitor and expert in paintings, art objects, and antiques.
Emperor Franz Joseph I granted Miethke in August 1890 the right to bear the Knight's Cross of the Papal Order of Pope Pius IX and the Serbian Order of the Cross of Takovo.
Miethke purchased the palace of Alexander Nákó at Dorotheergasse 11 in Vienna's Innere Stadt. The land register recorded the transfer of the real estate from Ignaz Fleischer and Solomon Stein to H.O. Miethke on 18 April 1895. During that year, he commissioned Kupka & Orglmeister, a Vienna-based architecture firm, to redesign the palace for his gallery.
Upon retiring in 1904, he transferred ownership of his gallery to Hans Weidenbusch on 31 May 1904. The art business was sold again by November 1904 to Paul Bacher who was linked to the Vienna Secession and designated Austrian painter Carl Moll as the new creative director.