The controversial painter Heinrich Lossow

Heinrich Lossow was a German painter, illustrator and curator.

Learn More

Quick facts

Heinrich Lossow was a German painter, illustrator and curator. He was the son of the sculptor Arnold Hermann Lossow, who moved from Bermen to Munich in 1820 to study under Ernest Mayer. Arnold H. Lossow had three sons Carl Lossow, Friedrich Lossow, and Heinrich Lossow. The three boys had an affinity for art, Carl became a historical painter while Friedrich became a wildlife painter. Heinrich would outlive all of his siblings.

Heinrich was born March 10, 1840 in Munich, Germany, and he died May 19, 1897 in Schleissheim, Germany. He lived for 57 years, 2 months and 9 days. Counted in days, his life lasted for 20,889 days.

Heinrich first trained under his father Arnold, then started studying in Munich’s academy of fine arts. He studied at the workshop, and in the studio of Karl Theodor von Piloty. He refined his painting skill on various trips in France and Italy during 1870 .

Heinrich Lossow was a genre painter, he drew his inspiration largely from the Rococo style. His Rococo style was highly in demand, and his paintings and engravings of bucolic rural scenes with abundant nymphs and cupids kept him busy. The German painter and engraver Heinrich Lossow was in many ways typical of his time, a skilled genre artist growing up in an artistic city, and these factors helped shape him into a notorious as well as a talented artist.

Erotic subjects seem to have been much in Lossow’s mind as he reached middle age, as this was also when he produced the set of etchings entitled Ein Treue Diener, though most of his work was more standard fare, including the publish of a set of illustrations for a new edition of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Lossow was a prolific pornographer in his spare time, and several of his most salacious art work can be found online. Heinrich Lossow was also the author of a production of the Metamorphoses and the Triumph of Cupid, which were inspired by erotic and even pornographic iconography which is a highly sought after collector’s item. Heinrich Lossow also published a collection of twelve engraved plates illustrating scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphosis, published by Friedrich Adolf Ackermann.

Toward the end of his life he served as a curator at Munich’s Schleissheim Palace.

Lossow’s best known works

  • The sin (Die Versündigung)
  • Remembrance (Erinnerung)
  • The Sphinx and the Poet by Heinrich Heine (The Enchantress) 1868
  • Musical hobbies (Musikalische Unterhaltung)
  • Honeymoon (Flitterwochen)
  • The Boudoir (Die Putzmacherin)
  • The Amazing Shepherdess (Die überraschte Schäferin).
  • An Afternoon Stroll
  • Couple By Stove
  • A Waterfall In The Forest
  • Travelling People 1867
  • The Flower Seller
  • After The Masked Ball 1893
  • Girl and Her Dog On Garden Bench
  • Dreaming In The Clouds
  • Marie Antoinette and Marie Therese at Versailles
  • Venus and Cupid
  • Profile Portrait of a Lady
  • Two Rococo Ladies
  • Home Visit Milliner
  • Marie Antoinette
  • Junge Dame Im Freien
  • Illustration for Glaspalast Munchen 1883 – 1888 – 1890 – 1891
  • Love Whispers 1897
  • Das Gestandnis
  • Part of Her Faithful Servant Series
  • Pargis
  • The Fairy Queen
  • The Persistent Suitor
  • The Little Darling
  • The Hatter’s Visit
  • Mei Suses Lieb
  • An Afternoon Stroll
  • Lekande Barn
  • Rothaarige Verfuhrung
  • Spinn Dotter Min
  • Rokokopaar Am Kaminfeuer
  • Nymphe Und Putto Am Waldteick