Edmund Steppes

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Edmund Carl Ferdinand Maria Steppes (born July 11, 1873 in Burghausen , † December 9, 1968 in Deggendorf ) was a German landscape painter .

Life

Childhood and youth

Edmund Steppes was the second of five children Karl and Eleonore Steppes (née Freiin von Schleich). His father Karl Steppes was a royal district geometer and was transferred to Munich in 1882 , where Edmund left the secondary school in 1891 with a secondary education and a certificate of scientific qualification for one-year voluntary service. In Munich, the young Edmund, according to his own statement, used the offer of the art museums there with enthusiasm in a later review. Perhaps also stimulated by the atmosphere of the art metropolis of Munich, in which numerous secessionist movements arose around the turn of the century, Steppes sought to train as an artist.

Apprenticeship and traveling years (1891–1901)

After completing secondary school, he attended Heinrich Knirr's private painting school in Munich as preparation for the academy from 1891 , which Paul Klee and Oskar Graf, among others, attended around 1898 . In autumn 1892, after successfully passing the entrance exam, he began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts with Gabriel Hackl . In the summer of 1893 the young artist exhibited successfully at the Munich Art Association. In his biography from 2000, Andreas Zoller speculates that the strikingly early exhibition of his works, which was actually only allowed for master students at the academy, led to resentment among the artist's professors and ultimately to his premature leaving the academy. On the other hand, it would also reveal the self-confidence of the young painter, whose character was more like that of an autodidact. Last but not least, Steppes himself expressed himself in his work "Die deutsche Demokratie" (German Painting) from 1907 with a decidedly disparaging view of the current teaching methods in art, which in his youthful enthusiasm he would have understood more as inhibition than as training. After leaving the academy around 1894, Steppes therefore continued to pursue art in self-study, to acquire the technical aspects of painting himself and to practice drawing from nature. Accompanied by his friend Heinrich Reifferscheid (1872–1945), whom he had met at the academy, he soon went on study trips to the Swabian Alb and Switzerland. The former landscape in particular should become a second home and a “painter's refuge”, just like the Allgäu to the south of it.

First successes and artistic marriage (until 1930)

Reifferscheid also connected the individualist Steppes to a certain extent with the Munich art school and established contact with the painter Emil Lugo (1840–1902), who in turn became his point of contact with exhibitors and customers, but not least a friend and teacher. In 1895 Steppes was drafted for one-year volunteer service in a Royal Infantry Regiment, to which he had enlisted in 1891. Before the end of the year, however, he was dismissed as unfit for service, handed over to the substitute authority and only ordered to be called up in the last months of the First World War in 1918. Despite Steppes' willingness to pursue a military career as an alternative to art after graduating from school, he largely escaped the service of the weapon.

In the years up to the turn of the century, Steppes was able to establish himself in the German art scene and draw on continued success in the following decade. A number of exhibitions ensured that the young artist became increasingly well known, and he was able to sell his works to state museums as well as to private clients. He had made influential contacts in the art and cultural life of the early 20th century. Trained and supported by personalities such as Henry Thode (1857–1920), Hans Thoma (1839–1924) and Karl Haider (1846–1912), he also maintained contact with the Bayreuth Wagner Circle, the Munich Art Association and the Munich Secession . In 1901 his name was already in two artists' dictionaries. He belonged to the circle around Emil Lugo (1840–1902). Color experiments in the style of Heinrich Ludwig followed .

He soon began to put down roots in his private life too, by marrying Anna Huber (1876–1951) in 1903, who gave birth to his daughter Erika Sophie Eleonore (1904–1993) the following year. His artistic style, which at the beginning of his creative period tended to follow the common conventions of landscape painting, became increasingly individual in the period around 1905. His works have also been recognized more and more abroad. On the occasion of an exhibition in Heidelberg in 1906, Steppes was even chosen as the main representative of the artistic youth, whose ideal was based on the symbolist art of Arnold Böcklin and Hans Thomas. The years 1902–1917 were headed by Andreas Zoller “the years of fame”. The rediscovery of Arnold Böcklin during this time showed Edmund Steppes at the side of Hans Thoma . Steppes got into the Wagner circle. The meeting with Ernst Haeckel also became essential for him. With the tempera painting Die Mühle , Edmund Steppes participated in 1904 as an early member of the German Association of Artists in the first DKB exhibition in the Royal Art Exhibition Building on Munich's Königsplatz.

Study of the Old Masters

Isenheim Altarpiece, detail

Like Böcklin and Thoma, Edmund Steppes also dealt extensively with the study of the Old Masters and late Gothic art. In his art-theoretical treatise “Die deutsche Demokratie” (German Painting), he campaigned for orientation primarily towards the old German and old Dutch masters. The works of the artists of the 14th and 15th centuries are particularly exemplary and reveal the “essence” of German art. In an autobiographical manuscript, Steppes provides the information that he had already visited Munich museums with great joy as a boy and emphasizes that he was particularly impressed by the works of Matthias Grünewald (around 1475-around 1530) and Albrecht Altdorfer (around 1480– 1538) would have impressed. In addition, he later referred to the lasting impression that Grünewald's Isenheimer Altar had on him. He had this during several stays with his uncle and sponsor Dr. Fritz Schmidtmüller and his wife Christine von Schleich in Colmar. Deliberately distancing oneself from the religious aspect of this work of art, one can clearly see in Steppes' pictures an orientation towards the sometimes bizarre landscape with mossy trees and steep rocks.

In the period after the First World War, which also thwarted Edmund Steppes' art production, until the early twenties, the artist did not build on the rapid success of his early career. Rather, a saddle time emerged in his work, during which relatively few paintings and, in contrast, a large number of study projects were created. Until around 1923 the artist occupied himself with the medium of drawing and with in-depth observations of nature. With a sensitive eye for even the smallest details, he translated his impressions into mostly small-format drawings and watercolors. While dealing with late Gothic drawings, the technical aspects of drawing in particular also formed an ideal to be emulated. When studying nature and landscape drawings by Wolf Huber (around 1485–1553), he strived for the greatest possible understanding of drawing technology and practiced making the most accurate copies. He paid particular attention to the draftsman's penmanship and even began his copying exercises with his own hand cutting of quill feathers, which should come as close as possible to the medieval drawing device. In some cases, he also colored the paper over the entire area or along its edges, adding artificial signs of aging to the sheet. In the course of his practical experiments, he also resorted to a technique by Martin Schongauer (1448–1491), who did not study the botanical templates for plant ornaments fresh, but first dried the plants and only then drew the solidified form. In Steppes' drawings of thistles and mosses, the use of similarly prepared plants can be guessed at.

Study of nature

However, many of the drawings he created clearly reflect the language of direct nature study. Individually highlighted flowers, especially the meadows, were drawn on site and show the plants in full freshness and firmly rooted. During his short studies at the Munich Academy , Steppes had already started to go on excursions to the Swabian Alb and Allgäu. The wider area from Munich to the Staffelsee also offered him endless opportunities for numerous excursions, which can be traced in the sketches and studies made there. Not unlike the German Romantics of the 19th century, Edmund Steppes also later roamed the predominantly southern German landscape with a sketchbook and drawing materials and captured the most remarkable discoveries on paper. Only the more elaborate watercolors and the often remarkably precise final drawing are likely to have taken place in a second step in the home studio. He mainly drew plants, trees and striking rock formations and experimented with different ink and ink formulas. Thanks to the exact dating of the sheets with the characteristic, calligraphic-looking signature of the artist, the collection of study sheets can be systematically compiled and examined for stylistic development. If you read Edmund Steppes' German painting , you will be captured by the poetics of his language, with which he lovingly describes impressions of nature and their significance for art. No teaching at the academy and no 'learning to see' could draw level with the direct experience of nature. It must be fully experienced and permeate the artist.

Particular attention is paid to the representations of trees, which are almost reminiscent of animals or humans. With their often anthropomorphic features, the gnarled and twisted trunks of the trees look like monstrous monsters. Zoller uses the apt term "tree corpses" to describe the beings that often appear too grotesque to have been drawn from nature according to an unchanged model. Not completely detaching from a naturalistic representation, the influence of symbolism and fantasy can also be read in these, which can be found in Steppes' painting up to the mid-1920s. An almost enthusiastic preoccupation with nature beyond direct observation could also be assumed here by the draftsman. The influence of his friend Thode is particularly noticeable, who not least expressed Edmund Steppe's basic mental attitude through his characterization of German art as an emotional and nature-oriented counter-model to French Impressionism. Steppes himself hosted regular meetings between 1919 and 1923 for a group of Germans who shared their enthusiasm for a new Germanic nature religion and the mystification of nature.

Steppes, who was rather critical of actual religiosity and, according to Zoller, above all sought the sociability of the group, was not infected by the religious claim of the "apostles of nature", but preferred to exchange ideas about the mysterious, mystical essence of nature in painting. In contrast to the botanical study drawings of various meadow flowers, the tree shapes express just such a profound aspect of the flora without appearing religiously exaggerated. In his “Confession to Art”, Steppes continues to emphasize the experience of dream-like ideas for his paintings that would have been bestowed on him through literature and music. Especially with a view to such dream worlds as moments of inspiration, the emergence of the tree creatures can perhaps be explained, which in their form stand between an intimate study of nature and dream structures. While the trees, plants and rocks in Steppes' drawings suggest a close-up view of the artist, in which one can imagine him lying on his stomach almost in the mind, the landscape sections show a sense of the perception of the natural space as a whole. Almost excerpts, but nonetheless with a far-reaching view, Steppes shows valleys, ranges of hills and bodies of water and sometimes even records atmospheric dynamics. Individual drawings create the impression of calm, summery mountain landscapes, while others show strong winds and air movements through rapid swings of the pen and the corresponding application of white highlights. As in the later light and cloud studies, a fleeting moment is captured, which was certainly put on paper quickly and with fresh memories. Although he still distanced himself verbatim from Impressionism and the associated processing of impressions in a painting in his work published in 1907, one is nevertheless tempted to assume a similar concept - at least in the basic idea - to him. Not least because not all of his studies were created on site, but only after returning home to the studio. He even advises: "At home you put aside your outside drawing and try to draw from memory the impression you experience in front of nature. This is the most beneficial!" Whether fresh in nature or with fresh memories in the studio, it was still important to him to capture an impression in order to translate it into his paintings - in the sense of composing many impressions and experiences in nature into an atmospheric whole.

Gode ​​Krämer referred to the inventory of his own graphic works, drawings and sketches, which Edmund Steppes made in the course of his life and neatly stored in boxes. These served him as haptic memories of the impressions of his excursions and walks in nature, the character of which he tried to capture in his paintings. Some of the drawings also appear as a reminder for a landscape and natural spatial impression. Sluggish, soft shapes can be seen as well as sharp-edged rocky outcrops, pale full moon nights as well as brightly colored meadows. Although Steppes himself expressed himself unequivocally dismissive of Impressionism, which came from France, not least in “The German Painting”, he pursued similar thoughts in these drawings by recording these impressions, impressions, with brush and pen, if only to to use them later for the composition of the "large" paintings.

The time of National Socialism

Steppes joined the NSDAP as early as January 1932 . In addition to his ethnic orientation, his bad economic situation was probably one of the reasons. Steppes exhibited several times in the 1930s and 1940s at the National Socialist propaganda exhibitions, major German art exhibitions , thereby demonstrating the politically accepted sentiments of his art. Steppes was represented with a total of 24 paintings at the exhibitions in the Munich House of German Art . In 1943 he accepted the Goethe Medal for Art and Science awarded by Adolf Hitler . In the final phase of the Second World War , Hitler included him in the God-gifted list of the most important painters in August 1944 , which freed him from military service, including on the home front .

In 1934 Steppes was involved in an exhibition with almost 50 German artists at the Venice Biennale . In 1937 Hitler bought the picture “Jurabach in Spring Jewelery” at the Great German Art Exhibition for 10,000 RM , which was the breakthrough for Steppes. By 1940 Hitler bought five more works from Steppes. Other buyers included Joseph Goebbels (1941) and Martin Bormann (1940). Even after the NSDAP came to power, Steppes did not comply with the heroic Germanization of art with Nordic aspects that was desired in art politics. Via Dietrich Eckart he came into the vicinity of the German national group with which he supposedly had a similar attitude. In letters to his wife, he expressed himself anti-Semitic , including about the Jewish art dealer Philipp in Posen , who otherwise sold his works well. As a freelancer for the Völkischer Beobachter , however, he attached great importance to the free artistic personality and did not allow himself to be fully integrated into the “movement”. As a member of the NSDAP, Steppes had to answer to court after the end of the war, where he emphasized that he had only followed Hitler's promise to promote German art and that he had only joined the party in this endeavor. Sentenced to a fine as a follower, Steppes was released from charges.

On January 7, 1945, his studio was bombed out . Countless drawings and 40 well-known paintings were destroyed. The artist then fled with his wife to their daughter in Ulrichsberg in Lower Bavaria.

Late years (1945–1968)

After 1945 Steppes could continue his career uninterrupted. Even before the war there were close relationships with Tuttlingen , so the family moved here to meet friends. In 1948 Edmund Steppes moved with his wife to Tuttlingen, where she died in 1951. In 1950 he rejoined the Munich Artists' Cooperative and exhibited in their exhibitions in the Haus der Kunst . In 1952, together with the painter and former Gestapo employee and member of the SS Alfred Hagenlocher (1914–1998) and the sculptor Ulrich Kottenrodt, he took part in an exhibition in the Reutlingen donation house , which was organized by Hagenlocher. In 1953 he was awarded the Cross of Merit on the ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal President "In recognition of the special services acquired for the state and people ..." . On his 90th birthday, an extensive retrospective with over 100 works, which were created between 1914 and 1963, took place in the Jahn-Halle in Tuttlingen in 1963. Living in Tuttlingen until 1967, the 95-year-old moved back to his daughter in Ulrichsberg in October. Edmund Steppes died there on December 9, 1968.

Works in museums and collections

Fonts

  • German painting , Munich (Callwey), 1907
  • from 1923 various articles in the Völkischer Beobachter
  • Seeing and painting , Tuttlingen o. J. (1953).
  • About art and artists , Tuttlingen 1964.
  • Majority delusion and loneliness , A reflection, Tuttlingen 1964.
  • A painter's book , Tuttlingen 1965.
  • Color and painting , seeing and looking, a painter's confession book, Tuttlingen 1965.
  • The dividing line in art and intellectual life , Munich / Tuttlingen 1967.

literature

  • Steppes, Edmund . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 32 : Stephens – Theodotos . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1938, p. 2 .
  • Steppes, Edmund . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 4 : Q-U . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1958, p. 357-358 .
  • Andreas Zoller: The landscape painter Edmund Steppes (1873-1968) and his vision of a "German painting" , Mosaik Verlag, Grafenau 2000, ISBN 3-87553-525-1 (dissertation from 1999)
  • Edmund Steppes (1873–1968): paintings, drawings, graphics , Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, (exhibition catalog from 1973)
  • Edmund Steppes (1873-1968). Paintings, drawings, etchings, Passau 1991.
  • HW Fichter Kunsthandel (ed.): Nature longing and fantasy truth. Drawings and watercolors by Edmund Steppes . Frankfurt am Main 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Zoller: The landscape painter Edmund Steppes (1873-1968) and his vision of a "German painting" . Grafenau 2000, p. 47 .
  2. ^ Andreas Zoller: The landscape painter Edmund Steppes (1873-1968) and his vision of a "German painting" . Grafenau 2000, p. 42-47 .
  3. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Steppes, Edmund ( Memento from February 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on March 14, 2016)
  4. ↑ s. Exhibition catalog X. Exhibition of the Munich Secession: The German Association of Artists (in connection with an exhibition of exquisite products of the arts in the craft) , Verlaganstalt F. Bruckmann, Munich 1904. (Catalog No. 148, p. 31: Steppes, Edmund, Munich. )
  5. ^ Edmund Steppes: "Rückblick", manuscript 1953 and "Von mein Leben", manuscript 1954 in the artist's estate, quoted from Zoller, p. 30 .
  6. ^ Andreas Zoller: The landscape painter Edmund Steppes (1873-1968) and his vision of a "German painting" . Grafenau 2000, p. 317 f .
  7. ↑ Gode ​​Krämer: Edmund Steppes. drawings and etchings, in Edmund Steppes (1873-1968). Paintings, drawings, etchings . Passau 1991, p. 11 .
  8. ^ Edmund Steppes: The German painting . Munich 1907, p. 39 .
  9. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 592.
  10. ↑ https://www2.landesarchiv-bw.de/ofs21/olf/einfueh.php?Stock=24391 Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg
personal data
SURNAME Steppes, Edmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steppes, Edmund Carl Ferdinand Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German landscape painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Burghausen
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1968
Place of death Deggendorf