Gustav Adolf Closs

Having decided on a change of careers, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, where he studied with Ernst Schurth (1848–1910).

After leaving the academy in 1891, he returned to Stuttgart, but continued providing illustrations for the popular satirical journal Fliegende Blätter for twenty years.

In 1907, he married Martha Pauline Karoline Pfaff, the daughter of a musical instrument maker, thirteen years his junior.

Among his book illustrations are those for Lichtenstein by Wilhelm Hauff, Die Sklavenkaravane by Karl May and Schillers Heimatjahre by Hermann Kurz.

He also produced some paintings for King Carol I of Romania and designed stained-glass windows, made by Franz Xaver Zettler for the Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband.

From 1918 to 1934, he was a member of the "Verein für Heraldik, Genealogie und verwandte Wissenschaften zu Berlin", serving as Deputy-Chairman.