Artists

Carl Adolf Erwin Ossmann was born in Loswitz near Dresden in Germany in 1883. He lost his parents at an early age and was brought up a foster mother, Countess von Beckendorff who was an artist. Carl Ossmann was educated at the Realgimnasium in Dresden. After school Ossmann registered at Dresden University to study agriculture, but he did not complete the course. He went to study art in Berlin, where he worked under Frans Skarbina who taught him etching,and Walter Leistikow who assisted him to master oil painting. His studies were followed by an extensive tour of Europe. He eventually settled in Berlin where he found employment working as an illustrator for the Scherl publishing company. Ossmann soon became well known for his drawings in the weekly magazine Die Woche.

In 1913 Carl Ossmann was sent to German South-West Africa by his employers on account of his poor health, but shortly after he arrived there the First World War broke out and his employment contract was cancelled. Due to financial constraints, he was unable to return to Germany after the war ended, and he became entirely dependent on his art for an income.

Carl Ossmann made an extensive contribution to the arts in South-West Africa, and he is widely known as one of the most significant artists from the region. Ossmann used oils as his primary medium to create delicately impressionistic landscapes by skilfully depicting the fall of natural light in the early morning and late afternoon, through the nuanced use of colour. Ossmann’s landscapes have made a lasting impression on future generations of artists from the region. He is also known for his illustrative images of birds and animals, and his sensitive use of line in his graphic tree studies.

Carl Ossmann exhibited extensively in South-West Africa between 1922 and 1933. He died in 1935.