Otto Böhler


Otto Böhler was an Austrian silhouette artist who specialized in portraits of many great conductors, composers, and pianists of his time.

Life

Otto Boehler was the fifth son of the merchant Georg Friedrich Böhler and spent his childhood and youth in Frankfurt am Main. At the University of Tübingen, he studied to PhD philosophy. In 1870 he moved with his brothers Albert and Friedrich to Vienna and participated after the death of his brother, Emil at the family business. Albert and Emil founded a steel industry, which is now part of Böhler-Uddeholm.
Following his artistic talent, he became a pupil of the painter and writer Wenzel Ottokar Noltsch. Soon, however, he turned to the art of the silhouette, and found in his musical environment a rich field. Böhler's friends were to include the singer Amalie Materna, Hermann Winkelmann, Theodor Reichmann, and musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1876 he attended as a member of the Bayreuth Patrons Association, the first Bayreuth Festival, and paid homage to his "musical god" Richard Wagner.
Böhler was married and had four children. He died in 1913; two years earlier he had been diagnosed with a heart condition. He was buried in the family vault in the Hietzinger Cemetery.

Art

Böhler has held in silhouette almost all the German composers from Bach to Mahler, but also conductors and pianists of his time. The original works remained only sporadically, mainly in museums. His motifs were often reprinted, e.g. on postcards and in newspapers.