Maximilian Dasio

1865 – 1954

see works by this artist

 

Biography

 

The remarkably varied career of the Munich artist Maximilian Dasio spanned from painting to medal making and saw him rise from Professor of art at the Munich academy to become cabinet minister for teaching and culture for the whole region of Bayern.

As an artist Maximilian Dasio's style was influenced by the work of Franz von Stuck and Hans Thoma, reflecting similar mythological sources; but it shares the strange sense of realism and some of the symbolist nature of his contemporaries Max Klinger and Richard Müller. Almost all of Dasio’s etched and printed works come from the peak of his career in fine art, between the years 1894 and 1900 – although he continued to paint throughout his life, he forsook printmaking and illustration for medal making around the year 1905. Over the next 25 years he designed and produced over 200 medals and pieces of coinage and it is this aspect of his work which has received the attention of recent study. However, the large one-man retrospective exhibition held in Munich in 1985 brought to light examples of Maximilian Dasio’s rare early original etchings with aquatint – these are now regarded as his finest graphic works.