Updated November 2026 · ranked by our popularity score (searches, visits and orders for each work) · 194 works by Hans Thoma in our catalogue
In short
Apollo and Marsyas (1888) is the Hans Thoma painting that draws the most eyes; the original belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. After it, the eye goes to Mother and Child in a Garden (1906) and The Artist (1866). Among the 194 works of Hans Thoma in our catalog, these 100 are the most famous, each a unique original presented with its year, its museum and the reason it endures.
In a quiet, wooded glade, two figures sit amidst the vertical shadows of cypress trees. The air feels heavy with the scent of damp earth and sun-warmed pine. On the left, Apollo holds his lyre, the instrument a delicate extension of his frame. To the right, Marsyas breathes life into the aulos, the double flute requiring a deep, rhythmic lung capacity. They are nude, their musculature rendered with a soft,…
The garden is held in the blue shadows of dusk. An older woman sits as a stable, triangular anchor against the dark, organic curves of tree trunks and reaching branches. She wears a garment of muted crimson, a single pulse of color amidst the deep indigos and earthy browns of the night. In her arms, she cradles an infant wrapped in pale swaddling. The light is low and directional, catching…
In the tender embrace of The Artist, Hans Thoma invites us into a private, domestic moment that feels both timeless and deeply personal. The painting presents a poignant portrait of two women—one older, one younger—caught in a shared instance of quiet contemplation. The elder woman, her features softened by wisdom and framed by spectacles, holds an open book, her focus anchored to the written word. Beside her, the younger woman…
The Art Author Conrad Fiedler is a portrait painted by Hans Thoma in 1884. The subject, Conrad Fiedler, was a German art historian, philosopher, collector, patron, and author of art theoretical writings. He lived from 1841 to 1895. The brush captures a man of thought, a figure defined by his intellectual weight and his deep connection to the study of art.
This 1876 portrait presents a medium close-up of a bearded man in profile, facing toward the right. The composition is rendered in a grayscale palette, utilizing a range of tones from deep blacks in the subject's formal attire to pale, luminous highlights on the forehead, cheek, and white shirt. The subject's face is defined by subtle lines that trace the contours of the skin and the voluminous, thick texture of…
The air thickens with the heat of an unfolding allegory in The War. Painted by Hans Thoma in 1907, this oil on canvas captures a moment of intense, fiery upheaval. The work exists within the permanent collection of the Städel Museum, where it remains a powerful presence. Every brushstroke contributes to a scene that feels caught in the middle of a sudden, violent transformation.
The artwork titled Portrait of Mrs. Cella Thoma is a painting by the artist Hans Thoma. Created in 1883, this work belongs to the portrait genre. The subject of the piece is Cella Thoma.
In this oil painting from 1897, we find ourselves in a landscape that feels heavy with the weight of what is about to happen. The scene is set during the quiet, golden hours of twilight, where the warmth of the sunset sky meets the deepening shadows of a dense, lush forest. At the center of this composition, a tree trunk draped in a stark white cloth acts as a vertical…
is an oil painting by Hans Thoma. Created in 1878, the work belongs to a period in the artist's career that reflects his engagement with the spiritual and the natural world. Thoma, who lived from 1839 to 1924, developed a distinct visual language that often bridged the gap between academic tradition and a more personal, imaginative vision.
The composition centers on a sunlit shoreline where a muscular male figure meets a group of women. This man, Hercules, is depicted with a powerful physique and holds a heavy club in his hand. He stands on the sand, his body positioned to face Hesione, the daughter of King Laomedon of Troy. Hesione is draped in a white garment that flows around her form, and her expression carries a mixture…
Feeding chickens1867 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
12
Portrait of Ida Müller, née Scholderer1877 · Städel Museum
13
Portrait of Ela with a basket1883 · National Museum in Warsaw
14
Woman portrait1882 · Kunsthalle Mannheim
15
Christ and Saint PeterNational Museum in Warsaw
16
Forest Interior with Reading Boy1860 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
17
Peasant Boy at the Edge of the Forest1862 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
18
Stony Path at the Forest Edge with Seated Man1860 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
19
Bouquet of wild flowers1872 · Alte Nationalgalerie
20
The bee friend1863 · Alte Nationalgalerie
21
Summer Morning in the Bernau Valley1863 · Augustiner Museum
22
The bee friend1863 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
23
Young farmer at the grain field1862 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
24
The Village Fiddler1871 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
25
The Shepherd with goat1869 · Landesmuseum Mainz
26
Girl feeding chicken1870 · Bavarian State Painting Collections
27
Agathe Thoma, sister of the artist1868
28
Agathe with a white dog1869 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
29
Artist's Mother in a Little Room1870 · Kunst Museum Winterthur | Reinhart am Stadtgarten
30
Portrait of the painter Wilhelm Steinhausen1869 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
31
In the sunshine1867 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
32
Sewing girl1868 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
33
Forester Kollmann1872 · Bavarian State Painting Collections
34
Otto Frölicher1875 · Bavarian State Painting Collections
35
Barbara Kollmann1876 · Bavarian State Painting Collections
36
Angel Concert1876
37
Scuffling Boys1872 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
38
Hamlet and Horatio at Ophelia's Grave1872 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
39
Spring in the mountains, Children dancing in a ring1874
40
In the Hammock1876 · Städel Museum
41
The siblings1873 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
42
On the field1876 · Rijksmuseum Twenthe
43
Summer1872 · Alte Nationalgalerie
44
A Peaceful Sunday1876 · Hamburger Kunsthalle
45
children + chickens1873
46
Dance of Faun + puttos1874
47
Diana under the tree1878 · National Museum in Wrocław
48
Portrait of Agathe, artist’s sister1873 · National Museum in Warsaw
49
Stream Landscape with Bathing Boys1879
50
Boy by the Brook1880
51
Haymaking1883
52
Riding on a Bird1885 · Städel Museum
53
Self portrait1880 · Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
54
Portrait of a woman1884 · Bavarian State Painting Collections
55
Tritonenzug1882 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
56
Lemon seller1880
57
Grandmother and Granddaughter with a Vegetable Basket1883
58
Girl with amoret Flora1881
59
Spring-landscape with young girl and 4 angels1879
60
young woman with child1880
61
The gardener1881 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
62
The Sculptor Erwin Kurz1887 · Lenbachhaus
63
Through the Floods1889
64
In Paradise1891 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
65
Såmannen1888 · National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design
66
Knight Saint George1889 · Alte Nationalgalerie
67
Archers1887 · Alte Nationalgalerie
68
Guardian in front of the Garden of Love1890 · Alte Nationalgalerie
69
Girl Portrait (Ella with straw hat)1888 · Alte Nationalgalerie
70
Still life with a hare, pheasants and a lobster.1889 · National Museum in Warsaw
71
Portrait of the Artist’s Sister Agathe1886 · Augustiner Museum
72
Approaching thunderstorm1889 · Von der Heydt Museum
73
Female centaur near a cascade1886
74
Hercules, liberating the king's daughter1890
75
Uphill1886
76
Market scene1889 · Kunsthalle Mannheim
77
Temptation of Christ1890 · National Museum in Warsaw
78
Satyr's family (bringing up of Zeus)1886 · National Museum in Warsaw
79
Angel with the star of Bethlehem1887 · National Museum in Warsaw
80
The Norns1889 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
81
Olive Grove at Lake Garda1897 · Dallas Museum of Art
82
group of young shepherds in landscape1894
83
Young faun and singing boy1895
84
Paradise1901 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
85
Christ as Gardener1901 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
86
Fairy tale - Knight1904 · National Museum in Warsaw
87
Portrait of the artist's adopted daughter - Elli Blaue.1903 · National Museum in Warsaw
88
Grainfield near Oberursel1902 · Von der Heydt Museum
89
Easter Triptych: Hell1907 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
90
Easter Triptych: Fields of the Blessed (Paradise)1907 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
91
Easter Triptych: Resurrection of Christ1907 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
92
Triptych: the Source1910 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
93
Angels – Annunciation1906 · National Museum in Warsaw
94
Annunciation to the Shepherds1906 · National Museum in Warsaw
95
God the Father above the shed1906 · National Museum in Warsaw
96
Virgin Mary's adoration of the Child in the shed1906 · National Museum in Warsaw
97
Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden1909 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
98
The Flight into Egypt1876 · Alte Nationalgalerie
99
Lowland at the Rhine1869 · Alte Nationalgalerie
100
Firs by the Forest Stream1861 · Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
The four subjects that come back most often in these originals, each with its finest example.
The 8 museums that hold the most of the paintings on this page.
| Museum | City | Works by Hans Thoma | Paintings from this list |
|---|---|---|---|
 Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe |
Carlsruhe | 59 | The Artist, Portrait of Mrs. Cella Thoma, Feeding chickens |
 National Museum in Warsaw |
Warsaw | 19 | Portrait of Ela with a basket, Christ and Saint Peter, Portrait of Agathe, artist’s sister |
 Alte Nationalgalerie |
Berlin | 16 | The Art Author Conrad Fiedler, Cloud of Angels, Bouquet of wild flowers |
 Bavarian State Painting Collections |
Munich | 11 | Firmin Straub, Girl feeding chicken, Forester Kollmann |
 Städel Museum |
Frankfurt | 6 | The War, Portrait of Ida Müller, née Scholderer, In the Hammock |
 Kunsthalle Mannheim |
Mannheim | 3 | Woman portrait, Market scene |
 Augustiner Museum |
Freiburg | 3 | Summer Morning in the Bernau Valley, Portrait of the Artist’s Sister Agathe |
 Von der Heydt Museum |
Wuppertal | 2 | Approaching thunderstorm, Grainfield near Oberursel |
Pick a decade to see the original that defines it.
In the tender embrace of The Artist, Hans Thoma invites us into a private, domestic moment that feels both timeless and deeply personal. The painting presents a poignant portrait of two women—one older, one younger—caught in a shared instance of quiet contemplation. The elder woman, her features softened by wisdom and framed by spectacles, holds an open book, her focus anchored to the written word. Beside her, the younger woman…
This 1876 portrait presents a medium close-up of a bearded man in profile, facing toward the right. The composition is rendered in a grayscale palette, utilizing a range of tones from deep blacks in the subject's formal attire to pale, luminous highlights on the forehead, cheek, and white shirt. The subject's face is defined by subtle lines that trace the contours of the skin and the voluminous, thick texture of…
In a quiet, wooded glade, two figures sit amidst the vertical shadows of cypress trees. The air feels heavy with the scent of damp earth and sun-warmed pine. On the left, Apollo holds his lyre, the instrument a delicate extension of his frame. To the right, Marsyas breathes life into the aulos, the double flute requiring a deep, rhythmic lung capacity. They are nude, their musculature rendered with a soft,…
In this oil painting from 1897, we find ourselves in a landscape that feels heavy with the weight of what is about to happen. The scene is set during the quiet, golden hours of twilight, where the warmth of the sunset sky meets the deepening shadows of a dense, lush forest. At the center of this composition, a tree trunk draped in a stark white cloth acts as a vertical…
The garden is held in the blue shadows of dusk. An older woman sits as a stable, triangular anchor against the dark, organic curves of tree trunks and reaching branches. She wears a garment of muted crimson, a single pulse of color amidst the deep indigos and earthy browns of the night. In her arms, she cradles an infant wrapped in pale swaddling. The light is low and directional, catching…
Three vertical panels hold a quiet, allegorical world. In the left section, a nude male figure leans toward a small waterfall, his hands reaching for the moving water. The center panel presents a woman in a flowing lavender robe, her fingers plucking a lute while a small child sits at her feet. To the right, a young man rests upon a rock, his gaze turned back toward the center, a…
Apollo and Marsyas (1888), Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Mother and Child in a Garden (1906) and The Artist (1866) come next.
49 years old: Apollo and Marsyas dates from 1888, and Hans Thoma was born in 1839.
Apollo and Marsyas, Mother and Child in a Garden, The Artist, The Art Author Conrad Fiedler, Firmin Straub, The War, Portrait of Mrs. Cella Thoma, Adam and Eve, Cloud of Angels and Hercules delivering Hesione. The ranking above gives each one's year and museum.
Our catalog holds 194 works by Hans Thoma, dated from 1860 to 1910.
Mostly in Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (Carlsruhe), National Museum in Warsaw (Warsaw) and Alte Nationalgalerie (Berlin). The museum table above lists them all.
In 1880s: 31 of the 100 works on this page were made then, Apollo and Marsyas among them.
On this page, the earliest is Forest Interior with Reading Boy (1860) and the latest Triptych: the Source (1910).
Woman (35), Trees (31) and Sky (25), across the 100 works on this page.
Oil On Canvas, for 55 of the 100 works on this page.
Romanticism, judging by the originals on this page.
The Artist, Portrait of Mrs. Cella Thoma and Feeding chickens: the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Carlsruhe holds 28 of the works on this page.
Hans Thoma stands as a singular figure in German art history, renowned for his evocative landscapes and portraits that capture the spirit of the Black Forest region—a place deeply ingrained within his artistic vision. Born in Bernau bei Berlin in 1839, he embarked on an artistic journey marked by unwavering devotion to his homeland’s traditions and folklore. His life was a delicate balance between meticulous observation and a profound sense of Romantic idealism, creating a body of work that feels both grounded in the earth and elevated by a dreamlike quality.
Thoma's formative years were shaped by the simple rhythms of rural life; his father’s trade as a clockmaker instilled in him a precision and an extraordinary attention to detail that would later permeate every brushstroke. In 1859, he enrolled at the Karlsruhe Academy, where he was mentored by masters such as Johann Wilhelm Schirmer and Ludwig Des Coulbres. This period established his foundational mastery of landscape painting techniques. While his subsequent travels through Düsseldorf, Paris, Italy, Munich, and Frankfurt exposed him to a whirlwind of diverse artistic currents, these international encounters only served to solidify his commitment to capturing the essence of German rural life and the timeless beauty of nature.
Thoma’s distinctive style defies easy categorization, yet it possesses unmistakable affinities with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Much like the works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti or John Everett Millais, Thoma prioritized capturing atmospheric conditions and conveying deep emotion through subtle tonal variations and luminous color palettes. His fascination with the minute details of the natural world—the texture of a leaf, the light filtering through a canopy, or the quiet presence of grazing cows—reflects a dedication to realism that is frequently tempered by an imaginative, almost mystical vision.
The lineage of German masters also played a pivotal role in shaping his aesthetic. The works of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder served as profound influences, informing his compositional choices and his ability to render precise outlines and careful shading. This blend of classical precision and Romantic sentiment allowed him to create scenes that felt both historically rooted and emotionally immediate. Whether through a black and white drawing like his Youthful Self Portrait or a vibrant, color-drenched landscape such as Autumn Tree in front of Wiesental, Thoma’s technical prowess remained centered on the pursuit of truth within nature.
Throughout his career, Thoma achieved a level of recognition that placed him at the heart of the German art scene. His ability to evoke serenity through lush greenery and fluffy skies—as seen in works like Landscape With Cloud—demonstrates an almost Impressionistic sensitivity to light and air. He did not merely paint scenery; he painted the atmosphere of a culture and a landscape, turning the Black Forest into a symbol of enduring peace and pastoral beauty.
The historical significance of Hans Thoma lies in his ability to bridge the gap between the rigorous academic traditions of the 19th century and the burgeoning emotionality of modern art. His achievements include:
Today, Thoma’s work continues to resonate with viewers who seek solace in the idyllic and the eternal. His paintings remain windows into a world where nature and humanity exist in a harmonious, beautifully detailed dance.
