Gustave Moeller

BORN: 1881 in New Holstein, WI

DIED: 1931 in Milwaukee, WI

Gustave Moeller was an American-born artist who was most well known for painting, especially painting American towns and villages. Moeller was born in New Holstein, Wisconsin, but moved to Milwaukee at a young age from New Holstein. 

As a teen, Moeller attended the Milwaukee Art Students’ League with young artists including Edward Steichen, founder and student of the League along with Herman Pfeifer and Arthur Becher. Teachers included Alexander Mueller and Richard Lorenz, and meetings were held in the basement of a building on Milwaukee Street. 

Moeller later found work as a commercial artist in an engraving firm, and for two years took classes at the Chicago Art Institute. In 1909 he left Milwaukee for New York where he worked as an illustrator and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. During the summer he painted on Staten Island and in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter he left for Munich, Germany where he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts where his teacher was Carl von Marr. 

In 1912, he returned to Milwaukee and first worked as a designer and commercial artist and then became a much respected teacher at Alexander Mueller's School of Fine and Applied Arts, which had been absorbed into the State Normal School.  Moeller spent the remainder of his life teaching there, becoming chairman of the Art Department in 1923. When the State Normal School became the Milwaukee State Teachers College in 1927, Moeller was named Director of Art Education.

He also was a member of the Milwaukee Men’s Sketch Club, on the Board of Trustees of the Milwaukee Art Institute, the Milwaukee Art Commission and Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors. He served on the Board of Trustees of the Milwaukee Art Institute, and he became involved in creating set designs for productions of Wisconsin Players. However, his primary activity outside of his own painting was participation in Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors, which he served several times as president and secretary. 

He worked on his paintings from a rented studio at 1039 3rd Street (now 2675 North 3rd Street). Several other artists had studios nearby including Armin Hansen, who later became a noted California artist.

Moeller helped find the Walrus Club, a men's sketch club, and with fellow artists went on painting trips to Bayfield on Lake Superior, and also went to others parts of the state of Wisconsin including Alma, in Buffalo County, where he especially liked to paint. He became especially known for his vibrant, colorful landscapes and for watercolor depictions of houses and quiet streets.  He frequently exhibited in Wisconsin including at the Milwaukee Art Institute, but showed no interest in exhibitions outside the state.

Moeller was a modest and retiring man who never married. He died in Milwaukee at the age of 49 from complications following an operation for appendicitis.  Eight months after his death the Milwaukee Art Institute held an important memorial exhibition of 165 of his works. Several smaller exhibitions were held by other entities including the Walrus Club. 

Source:

Peter C. Mueller, Compiler, German-American Artists in Early Milwaukee: A Biographical Dictionary, pp. 85-87