Fritz Osswald

Fritz Osswald
Born Friedrich Osswald
(1878-06-23)23 June 1878
Hottingen (Zurich)
Died 24 August 1966(1966-08-24) (aged 88)
Starnberg
Nationality Swiss
Education Academy of Fine Arts Munich
Known for Painting, graphic arts
Movement Post-Impressionism

Fritz Osswald (23 June 1878 – 24 August 1966) was a Swiss painter, member of the Munich Secession and of the Darmstadt Artists' Colony.

Biography

Fritz Osswald was born in Hottingen (Zürich) on 23 June 1878. The son of sculptor Albert Osswald, he spent his childhood between Zurich and Winterthur, where he attended primary school; after a few years in a boarding school in French-speaking Switzerland, he enrolled at the art institutes of Zurich and Munich. In 1897, Osswald frequented courses by Wilhelm von Diez and Nikolaos Gyzis[1] at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich,[2] and was awarded two medals of honour. From 1904, he was represented in Munich’s Secession exhibitions, where he encountered outstanding success, selling his first works to museums. Appreciated as an emerging artist – and compared by critics to well-established names[3] – Osswald married in 1907 Elsbeth Leopold, who gave birth to their daughter Agnes Hildegard, known as Hilla, in May of the following year. The artist travelled extensively between Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the North and Baltic seas; until, in 1913, he was invited by Ernest Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse to become a member of the artists’ colony of Darmstadt,[4] cradle and stronghold of the Jugendstil. Here Osswald, already well-known, decorated the formal reception rooms of the alta borghesia. With a private studio at his disposal inside the castle, he feverishly painted urban views, factories on the Rhine, vases of flowers, and large winter landscapes. By now at the apex of his career, the Swiss artist elicited enthusiasm in the most important German galleries – Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Berlin, Heidelberg, Dresden. At the outbreak of the Great War, Fritz Osswald was summoned back to Switzerland to enrol for military service, from which he was afterwards discharged when he had passed the age limit. On his return to Darmstadt, he was able to take up his previously nominated position as Professor of Art. In 1919 he left the artists’ colony and departed for the outskirts of Zurich, before buying, in 1922, a large house in Starnberg, Bavaria. Here he lived with his family until his death, which passed on 24 August 1966, after years of continuous artistic production.

Works

"I know that every winter morning, particularly on the coldest of days, he is out there, wearing thick mittens, painting behind the Hofgarten, or in Nymphenburg Park, or other places around Munich. His rendering of the winter scene as a symbol of our existence, where the light and icy atmosphere become a metaphor of fading life, are a particularity of his art".
(Art critic Georg Biermann on magazine Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, 1909.)[5]

A post-impressionist painter, Fritz Osswald created thousands of large winter landscapes, snowy urban views and still lifes. Through his intense collaboration with some major art dealers like Ernst Arnold[6] and galleries such as Heinemann,[7] Thannhauser and Brakl,[8] he achieved quite a critical and popular success till half of the 1930s.
In the 50th anniversary of Osswald's death, "L'école des Italiens - Museo Immaginario" and Fondazione Poscio have set up a large exhibit "Fritz Osswald - The sense of snow" in Domodossola (Italy) with over 70 paintings on show;[9][10] Italian art publishers Umberto Allemandi & C. and Mme Webb released the catalogue in Italian, German and English. The same exhibit will take place in Summer 2017 in Cles (Trentino).
Paintings of the Swiss artist can also be seen at the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt,[11] the Museum Starnberger See[12] and the Fundaziun Capauliana of Chur (Grisons, Switzerland).[13]

Exhibits

Paintings

References

  1. ↑ Auktionshaus Michael Zeller, Artist index
  2. ↑ Fritz Osswald, register 1884–1920
  3. ↑ Article of art critic Hans Graber on magazine Westermann’s illustrierte deutsche Monats-Hefte 58. Jahrgang – 115. Band, 2. Teil Gebundene Ausgabe – 1914
  4. ↑ Short biography of Fritz Osswald on Institut Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt webpage
  5. ↑ Art magazine "Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte", n. XXVII, 1913
  6. ↑ Art dealer Ernst Arnold's profile in an article on Frankfurter Allgemeine of 8 August 1998
  7. ↑ Exhibit "Gallery Heinemann presents Fritz Osswald" set up by "L'école des Italiens - Museo Immaginario" in Domodossola, (Italy) from May till October 2016
  8. ↑ The "Kunsthaus Brakl" in an article by Emanuel Von Seidl for magazine Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration
  9. ↑ Blogspot of art organisation "L'école des Italiens - Museo Immaginario"
  10. ↑ Interview to journalist Davide Brullo on Radiotelevisione Svizzera Italiana
  11. ↑ Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt
  12. ↑ Starnberg Museum
  13. ↑ Osswald's paintings of the Fundaziun Capauliana
  14. ↑ Catalogue of the 1909 exhibit in Le Locle
  15. ↑ History of the Heinemann gallery
  16. ↑ Heinemann gallery's digital archive at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg
  17. ↑ Die Münchner Moderne Galerie from magazine Sport & Salon, 16 April 1910, p. 13
  18. ↑ Exhibit "Fritz Osswald (1878-1966)"
  19. ↑ Museum Casa de Rodis in Domodossola"
  20. ↑ Fritz Osswald – The sense of Snow Video gallery of the Domodossola exhibit ("L'école des Italiens - Museo Immaginario", Collezione Poscio), from YouTube

Further reading

See also

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