Otto Antoine

Art Brokerage: Otto Antoine German Artist: b. 1865-1951. Otto Antoine was a German cityscape painter and commercial artist, in the Impressionistic style. Antoine was born to Georg Antoine, a watchmaker, and his wife, Marie née Roesgen. While still very young, he displayed an aptitude for art, and was apprenticed to a local painter after completing his secondary education. Economic circumstances prevented him from pursuing that goal so, at the age of eighteen, he entered the civil service and became a clerk at the post office in the Lützel [de] district of Koblenz. He continued to practice drawing and painting after work, and was often assigned to do calligraphy, due to his elegant handwriting. rnWhen the Secretary of the Post Office, Heinrich von Stephan, became aware of his talent, arrangements were made for him to study in Berlin. He went there in 1891, enrolled at the Prussian Academy of Art, and studied landscape painting. His most influential instructor was Franz Skarbina. While studying, he worked at the Oberpostdirektion, where he painted façades and small murals, depicting post offices. Immediately after moving from Koblenz to Berlin in 1891, Antoine contacted local artists in Berlin. He studied part-time at the Academy of Fine Arts (Hochschule für Bildende Künste) and attended courses in landscape and nude painting. In Professor Franz Skarbina (1849-1910), he found an artist who recognized his talent and encouraged and taught him what he, the self-taught artist, had yet to learn. Initially, Antoine mainly painted landscapes and mostly used watercolors. After his training under Skarbina, he preferred oil paint for larger images, because it was more expressive, and mostly painted city-themed motifs. He created many oil, pastel, and watercolor paintings as well as etchings of motifs of Berlin. Horse-drawn carriages on rain-soaked roads, the hustle and bustle on Leipziger Strasse or passers-by at the Brandenburg Gate – these are impressions the artist captured in their randomness and instantaneousness. Listings wanted.