Otto Mueller

German Expressionist painter Otto Mueller (1874-1930) joined Die Brucke in 1910, bringing a lyrical sensibility to the group's bold style. Nicknamed "Gypsy Mueller" for his possible Romani heritage and lifelong fascination with Romani culture, he created harmonious images of nudes and Romani women in natural settings. Unlike other Brucke members' intense colors, Mueller preferred pale, earthy tones and used distemper on coarse canvas for a distinctive matte surface. His simplified forms show the influence of Egyptian art.

Mueller trained in lithography before studying at the Dresden Academy under Georg Freyer, and later in Munich where Franz von Stuck dismissed him as "untalented." He joined Die Brucke in Berlin from 1910-1913, working alongside Kirchner, Heckel, and Pechstein. His trips to the Balkans in the 1920s produced numerous paintings and lithographs of Romani subjects. From 1919 until his death, Mueller taught at the Breslau Academy, considered one of Europe's most progressive art schools. The Nazis seized 357 of his works in 1937 as "degenerate art." Today his paintings hang at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brucke Museum in Berlin, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.