Boats Approaching the Coast

Köhler (Koehler) Fritz, whose baptismal name was Friedrich Köhler, born on June 28, 1887 in Moritzberg, Germany. He was a German landscape and marine painter.

In 1892, his family moved to Hamburg, where the cholera epidemic had just broken out. The Köhler family was luckily spared from the epidemic.

Köhler went to primary school at the age of five. In his youth, Fritz Köhler travelled the world’s seas on merchant ships.

From 1905 to 1907, Fritz Köhler attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg and Altona. The director of the Hamburg Kunsthalle, German art historian Alfred Lichtwark (1852 – 1914), recognised Köhler’s talent and advised him to attend the Weimar High School.

From 1909 – 1912, he studied at Weimar, learning antique drawing and nude studies with master teacher and artist Max Thedy (1858 – 1924). He worked also as a master’s student with the landscape teacher and painter Theodor Hagen (1842 – 1919).

After completing his studies in Weimar, Köhler established a studio in Hamburg. From 1913, Fritz Köhler worked in Dusseldorf.

During World War II, his flat and studio in Düsseldorf were destroyed and he evacuated to Berchtesgaden. He returned to Düsseldorf in 1945 and had his last studio in the artist’s house of the Association of Düsseldorf Artists.

Fritz Köhler died on February 12, 1972 in Düsseldorf.

Today, his paintings can be found in private and public collections, including at the Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Kunsthalle Hamburg, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf and the state collections of Berlin, Danzig and Weimar, among others.