View source for Adolf Oberländer

{{Short description|Bavarian artist}}
{{Lead too short|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox artist
 |image = Adolf Oberländer Lindner.jpg
 |caption = Etching by Johann Lindner
}}

'''Adam Adolf Oberländer''' (1 October 1845, [[Regensburg]]{{snd}}29 May 1923, [[Munich]]) was a German [[caricaturist]], [[illustrator]], [[cartoonist]] and early [[comics artist]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/o/oberlander_adolf.htm|title=Adolf Oberländer|website=lambiek.net}}</ref>

==Biography==
He was born at Regensburg, but after 1847 lived in [[Munich]]. He studied painting at the [[Munich Academy]] under [[Karl von Piloty]] beginning in 1861, but found that [[historical painting]] did not suit his particular talent. He soon discovered that the true expression of his genius was in the field of [[caricature]] and comic drawings,<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Oberländer, Adam Adolf|volume=19|page=946}}</ref> revealed in a humorous cartoon published in 1863 in the ''[[Fliegende Blätter]]''.

He joined the staff of the ''Fliegende Blätter'', to which he became a constant contributor and leading artist. Unlike [[Wilhelm Busch]], whose aim was the utmost simplicity of line, and whose drawings form a running commentary on the caption, Oberländer's work is essentially pictorial, and expressive in itself, without the extraneous aid of the written line. Among his best drawings are his parodies on the style of well-known painters, such as the ''Variations on the Kissing Theme''.<ref name="EB1911"/> Other subjects are taken from mythology, fairy lore, fables, animal life and the customs and habits of the German middle class.

His works were collected in the ''Oberländer-Album'', published by Braun and Schneider in Munich (1879–1901),<ref name="EB1911"/> and reprinted a number of times, most recently by Rosenheimer in 1982 ({{ISBN|3475523590}}). He was also a painter of some note, and pictures of his are in the galleries of Munich, Berlin, Dresden and other cities of Germany and in private collections.

==Selected drawings from ''Fliegende Blätter''==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="145">
File:Fliegende Blaetter 85 37 b1.jpg
File:Fliegende Blaetter 85 36 b1.jpg
File:Fliegende Blaetter 85 36 b2.jpg
File:Fliegende Blaetter 85 35 b2.jpg
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{More citations needed|date=August 2016}}
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Oberländer, Adolf}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline|Adolf Oberländer}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberlander, Adolf}}
[[Category:German caricaturists]]
[[Category:German cartoonists]]
[[Category:German editorial cartoonists]]
[[Category:German comics artists]]
[[Category:1845 births]]
[[Category:1923 deaths]]
[[Category:Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni]]