Wilhelm Kleinenbroich (1812 - 1895)

Wilhelm Kleinenbroich

Wilhelm Kleinenbroich was a German painter. He learned painting from Simon Meister in Cologne and at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. He can therefore also be counted among the Düsseldorf school of painting. Kleinenbroich's artistic work in the first half of the 19th century must be seen in close connection with his socially critical commitment: After his studies, he became a drawing teacher in the Cologne workers' education association, where socialists and communists such as Heinrich Bürgers and Hermann Becker taught alongside him, was a founding member of the Cologne workers' association and an active participant in the revolution of 1848. After the failed revolution, Kleinenbroich retired from politics and lived from decorative and portrait painting. The fact that Kleinenbroich's painting took a committed and partisan stance on socio-political issues of his time was already judged by sections of art critics to be inartistic and disparagingly counted among the tendencies in painting of the 19th century.