Paul Hoecker's work is primarily indebted to Realism and the renaissance of Dutch scenes in bourgeois circles, which enjoyed great popularity. His work demonstrates a masterful command of technique and graphic qualities, to which he adds atmospheric lighting. Hoecker first attended the Munich Academy of Art and, after completing his studies in 1882, went to Paris and from there to Holland, which left a lasting impression, especially in terms of motifs of his early creative phase. In Munich, he was in contact with Fritz von Uhde and Max Liebermann, who were also still influenced by Dutch Realism at the time. In 1891, he was appointed professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and took over Friedrich August von Kaulbach's class. His progressive teaching methods, which included plein-air painting sessions on excursions to the Munich lakes, soon made his studio the center of a positive atmosphere of departure. His teaching would have a formative influence on later Scholle members such as Leo Putz. In Hoecker's studio, he created domestic interior scenes reminiscent of Dutch genre painting, albeit in a large format. He paid great attention to the materials and their properties, such as the shine of the tiles, the fabrics of the robes and the reflections of the fire in the fireplace. The fireplace in his own studio, as photographs in his estate show, served as the backdrop. What he inherited from the Old Masters was the pleasure he took in describing material and the subtle observation of human behavior. [KT]