Wilhelm Hummel
Wilhelm Hummel was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and graphic artist. He is mainly known for landscapes, portraits and still lifes and was also active as an art teacher in Zürich.
Hummel was born in Gottlieben, in the canton of Thurgau, and grew up in the Lake Constance region. He worked as a freelance artist and settled in Zürich, where he combined painting with teaching. In 1913 he founded his own art school in the city, and from 1921 to 1927 he taught figure drawing at the Zurich School of Applied Arts. He died in Davos in 1939.
Hummel received commissions for public works, including the mural Simplontunnel bei Brig in the main building of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the wall painting Tiergarten in a kindergarten on Albisriederstrasse in Zürich. His paintings and graphic works are represented in Swiss public and private collections.
As a teacher he ran a private art school in Zürich and taught at the Zurich School of Applied Arts, where several younger artists studied with him. Documented pupils include the painter Hedi Mertens, who attended his classes at a women’s art and applied art school in Zürich around 1912, the painter Curt Manz, who was described as Hummel’s student at the Zurich School of Applied Arts in 1919, and the painter Walter Emil Müller, who undertook further training at Hummel’s private art school in Zürich in the early 1920s.