He was born in
Düsseldorf. His father, also named Carl Strathmann, was a merchant and manufacturer, who later served as
consul in
Chile. His mother, Alice, was originally from
Huddersfield, England, and was an art enthusiast. From 1882 to 1886, he studied at the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, with
Hugo Crola,
Heinrich Lauenstein and
Adolf Schill. After being dismissed for a "lack of talent", he enrolled at the
Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar where, from 1888 to 1889, he studied in the master class taught by
Leopold von Kalckreuth. When Kalckreuth left, he did as well; moving to Munich, where he lived a
Bohemian lifestyle as a free-lance artist, and met the painter
Lovis Corinth, who became a lifelong friend and associate. In 1894, he painted one of his best-known works: "
Salammbô", inspired by a novel of the same name by
Gustave Flaubert. In this monumental painting (6x9 feet) Salammbô, a high priestess of the
Carthaginians, is shown caressing a snake, as part of a ritual sacrifice. Many were horrified, calling it a "sadistic fantasy". The scandal made him immediately famous. Around 1900, he shared a studio with and
Adelbert Niemeyer, and gained a reputation as a caricaturist, when a portfolio of his drawings was published by
Edgar Hanfstaengl. This resulted in work for several periodicals, including
Pan, the
Fliegende Blätter,
Jugend and
Simplicissimus. He also created patterns for wallpaper, menu cards, bookmarks, postcards and posters. He was a member of the artists' association, and, briefly, the
Munich Secession, but left after some unspecified disputes. In 1904, together with
René Reinicke,
Hans Beat Wieland,
Rudolf Köselitz,
Wilhelm Jakob Hertling, and several others, he co-founded the Munich Watercolorists' Association. He exhibited with the
Deutscher Künstlerbund and the
Berlin Secession, which held a major showing of his work in 1917. His death came in 1939 in Munich, at the age of seventy-two. A major retrospective of his work was held at the
Münchner Stadtmuseum in 2019. ==Selected works==