Heinrich Altherr

Heinrich Altherr (born April 11, 1878 in Basel , † April 27, 1947 in Zurich ) was a Swiss painter . He created numerous wall paintings in churches and public buildings.

Heinrich Altherr

Life

Heinrich Altherr was the son of pastor Alfred Altherr . He first studied with his friend Carl Burckhardt with Heinrich Knirr in Munich. A trip to Italy made him realize that he was less attached to the bright harmony of the Mediterranean landscape and the serene sky, but more to the Nordic world of light and shadow. It was through this basic definition that he found his style, which later came close to Expressionism . French art and impressionism hardly affected Altherr either.

From 1906 Altherr taught at the academy in Karlsruhe . During this time he created frescoes and glass windows for churches in Darmstadt , Basel, Karlsruhe, Elberfeld and Zurich. In 1913 he followed a call to the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart . A few years later he took over the management there (1919–1921). He mainly taught composition and composition there and stayed until 1939. In 1923 he was one of the founding members of the Stuttgart Secession . In 1935 Altherr attended a drawing course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

Altherr fought incessantly against the superficial change of fashions in the visual arts and later against the National Socialist art policy. From 1937 onwards, Altherr's art style was assigned to the so-called " degenerate art " by the ruling National Socialists . When Altherr's pictures were confiscated and partially destroyed in Germany in 1939, the artist returned to his homeland in Switzerland.

The Steadfast, Cloister, Basel-Stadt State Archives

His colossal painting The Last Judgment for the Friedenskirche in Heilbronn, created in the summer of 1939 from his “Swiss exile” , testified to the power of his existential statements: Christ standing in the middle is flanked on the left by the believers and on the right by the unbelievers. He holds his left hand up in a greeting of peace, but looks to the right at the unbelievers. This plant was destroyed in the bombing war in 1944. The municipal museums in Heilbronn hold a bozzetto of this work. Altherr's work found its culmination in several large frescoes in the Senate Hall of the University of Zurich and the wall paintings in Basel.

Some of Altherr's wall paintings can be seen in the University of Zurich and in the Paulskirche in Basel. His style is expressionistic and emotionally intense; the motives are often political, socially critical or existential. Altherr was a member of the German Association of Artists .

The Last Judgment, Hörnli Cemetery

The murals from 1942–1944 in the cloister of the Basel State Archives , The Light Bringer , The Steadfast , The Annunciator and Wanderer on the Rest , as well as the mural The Last Judgment from 1941 for the quiet hall in the cemetery on the Hörnli , went out of the competitions of the Art Credit Basel City emerges as the winner.

Student (selection)

Altherr's gravestone, left in front of the wall fresco The Last Judgment in the Hörnli cemetery

Works (selection)

Mosaic in the pulpit niche of the Pauluskirche in Basel (approx. 1904–1908)
Window of the Pauluskirche Darmstadt (around 1907, lost)
Portrait of the sculptor Fridolin Dietsche (before 1929)
The evening after the battle (ca.1935)
Vision (ca.1935)
Last Judgment (1939, monumental fresco, 4 meters high, 12 meters wide) in the Friedenskirche in Heilbronn ( see here )

Murals from 1942–1946
Mural. The light bringer
detail
The denouncer
Mural The Wanderers

literature

H. Höfchen: Altherr, Heinrich . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 2, Seemann, Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-363-00115-0 , p. 696 f.
Heinrich Altherr among others: Heinrich Altherr, 1878–1947: paintings, drawings. Carl Hofer, 1878–1950 [i. E., 1955]: paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs. Exhibition at Ars Antique, Frankfurt, Messe Frankfurt, November 28 to December 2, 1990 . Galerie Schlichtenmaier, Grafenau 1990, ISBN 3-89298-058-6 .
Heinrich Altherr: Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen, exhibition from June 24 to August 6, 1978 . Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen 1978.
Heinrich Altherr: Art Political Documents . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1934.
Tapan Bhattacharya: Altherr, Heinrich. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Pierre Gauchat: Altherr, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 221 f. ( Digitized version ).
Herbert Read: Altherr, Heinrich. In: Kindler's Painting Lexicon im dtv , Volume 1. Munich 1982, ISBN 3-423-05995-8 , p. 82 f.
Walter over water, Wilhelm brown: the painter Heinrich Altherr. His way and work . Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 1938.
Agathe Straumann, Basel-Stadt Education Department. Heinrich Altherr. In: Art for Basel: 75 years of art credit Basel-Stadt. Art in public space. Schwabe Verlag, Basel 1974, ISBN 3-7965-0968-1 .
Ulrich Christoffel: The murals from 1942–1944 in the cloister of the Basel State Archives , Architecture and Art, Vol. 35, 1948, pp. 385–391
Walter Überwasser, Arnold Kübler : Heinrich Altherr, painting Vision , You , 1945

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Altherr - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Publications by and about Heinrich Altherr in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
Literature by and about Heinrich Altherr in the catalog of the German National Library
Heinrich Altherr on artnet
Barbara Stark: Altherr, Heinrich. In: Sikart
Heinrich Altherr In: Art Credit Collection
Heinrich Altherr In: Swissbib

Individual evidence

↑ dtv-Lexikon, Volume 1, 1977, p. 115.
^ Academy of Fine Arts, Munich: Heinrich Altherr, 1935, entry in the register of the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. Retrieved June 13, 2019 .
↑ Barbara Stark: Altherr, Heinrich. In: Sikart
↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund since it was founded in 1903 / Altherr, Heinrich ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on March 1, 2016) @1@ 2
↑ G. Oeri: The youngest court. In: Architecture and Art. Retrieved November 28, 2019 .

personal data
SURNAME	Altherr, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss painter
DATE OF BIRTH	April 11, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH	Basel
DATE OF DEATH	April 27, 1947
Place of death	Zurich

[1] dtv-Lexikon, Volume 1, 1977, p. 115.

[2] Academy of Fine Arts, Munich: Heinrich Altherr, 1935, entry in the register of the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. Retrieved June 13, 2019 .

[3] Barbara Stark: Altherr, Heinrich. In: Sikart

[4] uenstlerbund.de: Full members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund since it was founded in 1903 / Altherr, Heinrich ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on March 1, 2016) @1@ 2

[5] G. Oeri: The youngest court. In: Architecture and Art. Retrieved November 28, 2019 .