Otto Erdmann
1834–1905 · German genre painter of the Rococo Revival
Otto Wilhelm Eduard Erdmann (Leipzig, 1834 - Düsseldorf, 1905) was a German genre painter working in the Rococo Revival style, which revived the gallant aesthetics of the eighteenth century in scenes of courtly life. His work belongs to the nineteenth-century German tradition of genre painting, and it is of interest for the way it reworked an eighteenth-century repertoire for the taste of his own time.
The son of the chemist Otto Linné Erdmann, he began his artistic training at the Leipzig academy and later attended the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. He completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he worked with the genre painter Ludwig von Hagn. In 1858 he settled in Düsseldorf, where he specialised in Rococo Revival paintings, largely set in a light-hearted court environment.
In Düsseldorf he belonged to the artists' association Malkasten and sat on its board of directors for many years. His works include Saying Farewell, Marriage Proposal, Le message and I might soon be rich. He also produced illustrations, notably for the inaugural issue of the Belgian journal L'Illustration Européenne in 1870. In 1898 he was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle. Apart from painting, he was an amateur actor.