Wilhelm Holter
Norwegian, 1842 - 1916
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Wilhelm Holter was a Norwegian painter and graphic artist.
He worked for several years as a lawyer. He initially trained as a landscape painter under Hans Gude in Karlsruhe, but under the influence of Carl Gussow he switched to figure painting and followed him to Berlin in the fall of 1875. After completing his apprenticeship in 1878, He continued to live in Berlin until 1884, where he led a painting class at the Verein der Künstlerinnen from 1882.
In the period 1884-85 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. In the spring of 1885, he took up the position of director of the National School of Crafts and Art Industry in Oslo, where he worked until he resigned in 1912. As a painter, he made his debut with a figure composition Aus alten Mären at the Academy exhibition in Berlin in 1879, where the following year he exhibited a full-length portrait of a lady and in 1883 Lady with a Fan.
The first of these portraits in particular (painted in 1879, the model presumably Mrs. Marie Løscher) attracted attention for its fine characterization and figure treatment. Overall, Wilhelm Holter made his most
significant contribution as a portrait painter.
