author
Richard Muther
1860–1909
A German art historian and critic who helped bring the story of modern painting to a wide audience. Best known for ambitious survey works, he wrote with a broad, lively sense of how art changed across Europe.
3 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Ohrdruf on February 25, 1860, Richard Muther studied at Heidelberg and Leipzig, where he earned his doctorate. He went on to build a reputation as a critic and historian of art, and in 1895 became professor of art history at the University of Breslau.
Muther is especially remembered for large, wide-ranging books on painting and illustration, including The History of Modern Painting. His writing aimed to connect readers with the bigger movements of European art rather than just isolated masterpieces, which helped make art history feel more accessible to a broader public.
He died on June 28, 1909, in Wölfelsgrund, then in Germany. Though not as widely known today as some of the artists he wrote about, his books remain part of the history of how modern art was explained and popularized for readers at the turn of the 20th century.