Adalbert Trillhaase

Adalbert Fritz August Trillhaase (January 7, 1858 – May 12, 1936) was a German painter.

Life

Adalbert Trillhaase came from a middle-class, religious merchant family in Erfurt. After finishing school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship. Before 1890, he married Augusta Löhrer, the daughter of a wealthy merchant family from Hattingen an der Ruhr. Around 1890, he ran a linen factory in Bielefeld. The couple had three children, including their son Siegfried, born in 1892, who became a lawyer and self-taught painter. Trillhaase settled in Düsseldorf for the first time in 1894 at the latest. In 1896, he moved with his family to Stuttgart, and shortly afterwards to Hagen in Westphalia, where he worked as the managing director of an iron factory. After inheriting a substantial fortune following the death of his father-in-law, he returned to Düsseldorf in 1899, invested the money in real estate, and managed it. He lived in the Netherlands for a time during the First World War, returning to Düsseldorf in 1919.

He spent his time reading, mainly travel stories and the Bible, especially the Old Testament. It was not until later in life, but no later than 1918, that he began to teach himself to paint. Through his son Siegfried, who also painted, he was introduced to Otto Pankok in 1919 and became part of Mutter Ey's circle. Pankok, a protagonist of the “Junges Rheinland” (Young Rhineland) artists' group, encouraged Trillhaase in his artistic beginnings.He was portrayed by artists of the Düsseldorf avant-garde who frequented his home, such as Otto Dix, who was also a tenant in one of his houses (The Family of the Painter A. T., 1923, Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie), or by Karl Schwesig (The Trillhaase Couple, 1924). 2024–2025: Artist at Work, Kolumba, Cologne