Painter, landscapist
German painter, landscapist that worked in Lower Silesia. Born in Wroclaw near st. Dorota 5 street as a son of Joseph Wilhelm and Auguste née Reich. His first painting teachers were artists from Wroclaw, Johann Heinrich König and Ernst Resch. He was learning from them from 1849 to 1853. One year after finishing the education under masters of Wroclaw he went on his first travel to Tyrol.
He debuted in 1855 at Silesian Artistic Club. There he presented portrait and two landscapes. Club bought his landscapes. This way he could allocate money he earned to further expand his art education. He went to Frankfurt-am-Main where in 1855 to 1864 he attended private lessons from Jakob Becker at local art institute. During his studies in Frankfurt he befriended Anton Burger, who also was a student of J. Becker. Thanks to him he went to Kronberg, Taunus Mountains, where his friend settled for good. Dressler was involved in founding of Arts Colony there.
He exhibited his work in Wroclaw, Dresden and Berlin. He mostly painted landscapes from Wroclaw area, but also from places that he visited. He went on a multiple artistic travels, he went to Upper Bavaria where he visited Ramsau, Brennenburg and Tyrol among the others. Since 1867 he regularly visited Karkonosze. In the beginning he stopped over in Zachełmie, later mostly in Przesieka, where he lived with blacksmith Legler. In 1869 he lived in August Seibers house on Taschenstraße 5 (currently Kołłątaja) where he was meeting his students like Gertrud Staats, George Müller-Breslau, Robert Silwinski and his own son Hans.
Even then Adolf Dlesser was already called the best painter of the landscapes by Wroclaw press, his paintings were awe-inspiring. In 1870 he received an order from Hans Ulrich Schaffgotsch to create 4 murals that will present seasons and times of the day, in neo gothic castle in Kopice.
He was always active in exhibitions, his works were eagerly bought by museums and many private people. Since 1875 kept register of sold paintings, in which he put small sketches. In 1877 Emperor Wilhelm I bought from him Jezioro leśne. Nad Baryczą was also acquired for the Emperor's collection. One of the famous paintings of Adolf Dressler was “Panorama Karkonoszy”, an impressive canvas 7x20 m. Authority of Wroclaw wanted to order 3 paintings that would present individual parts of the province: Upper, Middle and Lower Silesia. Panorama was made available in 1881. Huge Canvas was set in artificial grotto, that was specifically built for that purpose. Illusion of real view was co-created with the help of so-called artificial surrounding that was created from rocks, spruces, dwarf pine and also water fall that created additional effect.
Canvases were bought by a businessman from Hamburg, later by the owner of the Prince Henryk's shelter near the great pond, lastly it was lost in 1945 when the shelter was burned down. Small blueprint of the project (1,10 x 3,20 m) was preserved in Karkonosze Museum's archives. Despite rather short time period of work, 27 years, he managed to achieve something that no other painter before him did. He created first school of canvas in Silesia. In September of 1879 he was announced as Chief of the Landscape Painting workshop in Wroclaw, near the newly open Museum of fine arts. Open air trips became everyday life, especially trip to Przesieka in Karkonosze. Sadly death of Dressler caused closure of the workshop, that was opened for barely 2 years.
He passed away in Wroclaw in 1881. In literature there appeared an information that he died in Przesieka. In reality critically ill artist spent his vacation in Przesieka, but worsening condition forced him to move to Wroclaw, where he died within a few days of arrival. He was buried in st. Mary Magdalen cementary, which main entrance was located on today Kamienna street. Archives of Dressler family that were kept in the bunker by his oldest daughter - Selma, were destroyed during siege of Wroclaw in 1945.