Ernst H. Graeser

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Ernst Heinrich Graeser (born May 8, 1884 in Kronstadt , Transylvania , † December 10, 1944 in Stuttgart-Sillenbuch ) was a German painter.

Life

Signature of Ernst Graeser in the choir window of the Evangelical Trinity Church in Dörzbach

Ernst Graeser was born as the youngest of five children in Kronstadt, Transylvania, now Brașov ( Romania ). The parents came from respected Protestant families with significant Transylvanian ancestors. His older brothers Karl and Gusto Gräser were co-founders of the influential reformers' settlement on Monte Verità near Ascona in 1900 . Like his brothers, Ernst was gifted in many ways: drawing, musical (violin), linguistic (poetry). In 1899 he began training as an architect. In order to be able to devote himself entirely to the “truth”, to art, he decided in 1902 to pursue a career as a painter. First he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, followed by study visits to Zurich and Ascona, and from 1908 to 1914 he studied at the Royal Württemberg Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart . His professors there were Christian Landenberger and Adolf Hölzel .

Already in these years Graeser was very close to the thoughts of Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophy . Graeser married Baroness Klementine von Pongracz in 1916, whom he had met in Munich while studying there. The marriage remained childless. After the marriage, the couple lived in different apartments in the greater Stuttgart area, most recently permanently in Stuttgart-Sillenbuch.

Due to the participation in a large number of exhibitions, Graeser gained a high level of awareness, which u. a. In 1920 he became an honorary member of the Dresden Art Cooperative . Three years later he was a founding member of the Stuttgart Secession (1923–1932), in whose exhibitions he participated annually. In 1923, 1924 and 1927 he was appointed to the jury there.

In 1931 Graeser suffered a severe economic loss due to the fire in the Munich Glass Palace . Eight large paintings by Graeser were destroyed along with the entire exhibition building.

Good friends and companions during these years were u. a. the Protestant pastors Friedrich Weinbrenner and Karl Knoch, the Waldorf teacher Ernst Uehli and the writer Ernst Bacmeister .

Presumably for political reasons, a planned appointment as professor at the Berlin Art Academy was not made in the mid-1930s.

In the period around the First World War, Graeser expressed the struggle of “good versus evil” in many visual representations. At the end of the 1930s, his feelings towards the problematic current social events were expressed primarily in poetry. Around 1942 he summarized the poems, formulated in free rhythms, in the collection of poems "Seeds for the new earth".

Graeser succumbed to cancer in 1944 after being sick for a long time. His urn was buried in the Stuttgart forest cemetery. Pastor Rudolf Daur gave the funeral address .

plant

Graeser was a very versatile artist who did not allow himself to be tied down to any particular art style. Many of Graeser's paintings can most likely be assigned to late impressionism. In order to preserve an inner freedom for his diverse art, he consciously renounced popularity and marketability.

Today there are u. a. numerous paintings and graphic works in the depots of the State Gallery and the Stuttgart Art Museum.

There is evidence of a total of 42 individual and collective exhibitions between 1907 and his death. His etching “Engelskampf” recently appeared in a symbolism exhibition in Ferrara, Italy .

The earliest works of his student days were mainly etchings. Many of them can be assigned to symbolism. Etching was one of his favorite techniques during these years.

Around the time of the First World War, the topic of "violence, war and death" formed a special focus. Numerous patriotic compositions were followed by criticism towards the end of the war. Around the same time, Graeser developed a monumental style that was characteristic of his person, with large areas of paint, for oil paintings . He used this style primarily to depict biblical themes. Art critics call him the most important, in any case the most inward religious painter of his generation.

After the First World War, landscape painting became a clear focus of his artistic work. Graeser was soon referred to by the press as "Spring Graeser". Graeser's versatility is also evident in other different forms of representation: in his charcoal, pen and ink drawings, his sometimes large-scale watercolors, in book illustrations and his portrait paintings.

At the end of the 1920s, Graeser began designing glass windows for churches. From a large number of completed orders, 17 locations are still known today, including the three nine-meter-high windows created in 1929 for the choir of the Backnang collegiate church. He designed the last known and preserved window in 1939 for the choir of the small St. Bernhardt Church in Esslingen .

As far as we know today, none of his frescoes for churches and public buildings have survived.

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personal data
SURNAME Graeser, Ernst H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Graeser, Ernst Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Kronstadt , Transylvania
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1944
Place of death Stuttgart-Sillenbuch