Richard Graef (1879 - 1945)

Richard Graef

Richard Graef was a German painter, graphic artist, illustrator and cartoonist.

Graef studied painting at Hans von Hayek's school in Dachau, and then went to Paris for further studies, and afterwards opened his own studio in Dachau with his wife. Graef achieved fame as an illustrator and cartoonist, whose subjects - human vices and weaknesses, the relationship of the rich and poor and so on. He is one of the most famous and prolific cartoonists of the satirical weekly Simplicissimus and one of the oldest members of the Dachau artist colony at the time.

Graef also mastered wood engraving, but over time turned increasingly to watercolor and oil painting, creating still lifes and portraits as well as landscape paintings.