Wilder studied under Jean Léon Gérôme and Marius Michel; he exhibited at the Salon held by the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Tuileries. In 1904 and 1909, he exhibited at the Fondation Bernheim in Paris, then visited Belgium and Holland. He also exhibited in Rotterdam, London, New York, Brussels, Zurich, Barcelona, Saragossa, San Francisco, Riga and Tokyo. Some of his works are housed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior; also at the Prefectures for the Haute-Loire and the Loire-Atlantique départements and at the town hall in Constantine. His painting Poissy Bridge was bought by the city of Paris. Influenced by Monet, Wilder painted landscapes; he prepared a vermilion wash, with a red outline around vibrant forms showing through. Attracted by Impressionism, he painted in the style of Alfred Sisley and mainly Maxime Maufra, whom he met in Trébeurden in 1895.
André Wilder (Paris 1871 – 1965), son of the musicologist Victor Wilder, took courses at the school of decorative arts in the workshop of Léon Gérome. In 1892, he met the painter Marius Michel with whom he was very close.
In 1895, in Trébeurden, he became friends with the painter Maxime Maufra. It is he who will introduce her to Brittany during the three weeks they will spend there that year. Attached to impressionism, he painted in the style of Alfred Sisley and especially Maxime Maufra.
Brittany was a great source of inspiration for him. André Wilder painted in the footsteps of Claude Monet at Belle Ile, went to Saint-Briac, the Gulf of Morbihan, Pontivy, Carnac, Quiberon. He also stopped at Camaret, Saint-Malo.
His first major individual exhibition took place in 1904 at the Bernheim gallery. The catalog is prefaced by Octave Mirbeau. He exhibited again at Berheim in 1909 and in the following years at the Charpentier gallery, at Montauti in Nice, then in Rotterdam, London, New York, Brussels, Zurich, Barcelona, San Francisco, Riga and Tokyo.
Museum and Gallery Holdings
Paris (MAM): The Oise at Janville
Luxembourg Museum
Cincinnati Museum
Constantine Town Hall
French Consulate in New York
Prefecture of the Lower Loire
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – France
Ministry of the Interior – Maritime Museum – France