Ernst Kutzer (Illustrator)

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Ernst Kutzer (born June 10, 1880 in Böhmisch Leipa ; † March 19, 1965 in Vienna ) was an Austrian painter, graphic artist, author and picture book illustrator.

Life

Kutzer was born as the son of the tanner and leather manufacturer Josef Kutzer. His grandfather had been mayor and distinguished himself by being close to the people. According to the latest information, the ancestors are documented up to the land and castle bailiff George Kutzer, who lived in Dobern (today the Dobranov part of Česká Lípa) in 1504. Kutzer was married and had two sons, Ernst and Friederich; the latter was also a painter.

After attending grammar school in Bohemian Leipa, he moved to Vienna in 1899. There he attended the painting school Streblow, then the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna on Schillerplatz. His first studio was in Apollogasse in Vienna-Neubau , near the famous Mariahilfer Strasse . As early as 1900, clients from industry and business approached the art student. His gift of being able to establish the most direct contact with the viewer is already evident in his first large poster designs. Soon he gained a certain degree of notoriety. In 1909 he obviously had a special position at the Academy.

From 1910 he began to illustrate books for young people for the Stuttgart publisher Levy & Müller , developing his unmistakable children's drawings. During the First World War he was a war painter. He was also the organizer of a large war exhibition in Lemberg . This is why the folder was created: Serious and cheerful from the World War . In addition, he designed, drew and painted numerous postcards, which are still very popular today.

On behalf of the Cologne chocolate producer Ludwig Stollwerck, he designed collecting pictures for Stollwerck scrapbooks , including the series Ein Wintermärchen for the Stollwerck scrapbook 13 - Humor in Pictures and Words Part 2 from 1912.

In the years 1920 to 1938 the high points of his work and his publicity can be found with the creation and publication of the most important children's books , numerous primers, hundreds of newspaper, magazine and postcard illustrations. The acquaintance with Adolf Holst , who began writing their first book together as early as 1913, was particularly influential in this phase of his artistic career . At that time Holst was already known as a writer of poems for children and funny verses for picture books. Together with Ernst Kutzer a congenial team has now formed, which over the decades has repeatedly published new works with memorable verses and images. The two stimulate each other with their ideas, sometimes Holst's verses form the origin, sometimes Kutzer's picture stories, only visible to connoisseurs by whose name appears in the first place on the books. For young readers, they are always an inseparable content unit anyway. During this time, the two artists created classics of children's literature such as: Hans Wundersam, The Christmas Star, Hans Quack, The Golden Gate, Fips the Runaway. Both were linked by a deep, family friendship throughout their lives. It is not uncommon for the imaginative Kutzer to write the texts for his cheerful stories himself. He also had a friendly partnership with Anneliese Umlauf-Lamatsch . From this grew books like The Snowmen, Putzi the Devil, The Journey into the Wrong Land, The Nine Cones. He continues to illustrate many books for the Levy und Müller publishing house, including most of Josephine Siebe's successful Punch and Judy books . From 1923 to 1936 he illustrated the children's supplement to Adolf Luser's Viennese magazine Der getreue Eckart every month , for fourteen years without interruption and practically completely alone - impressive evidence of his constant creative productivity in these years. Between 1926 and 1930 there was a collaboration with Albert Sixtus . Made to verses by Sixtus: In the wonderful Puppenland , Der Dachshund Schutzmann , Die Zwergeisenbahn and Kikeriki .

Hardly any orders came in during the war years. Kutzer was rejected as "too Austrian". Nevertheless, a few orders ensured the modest economic survival of the family. These minimum activities led in the immediate post-war period to a ban on mentioning his name on school books. From 1948 onwards, the situation around the Kutzerbücher normalized.

During these years he again created picture book illustrations for works by Franz Karl Ginzkey , again with Anneliese Umlauf-Lamatsch, and the result is his picture book, Puckerl und Muckerl , which is the most widespread in Austria , for which Hilde Forster wrote the text. This book is still being published by Breitschopf Verlag , which after the Second World War helped Kutzer and his family to survive through his orders. During this time, too, Kutzer's primers and reading and arithmetic books were part of school lessons. The Esperanto textbook is still in use today. Animal and plant pictures were created in the 1950s for the Heller printing company , the brother of the confectionery Heller , who wrapped his sweets in the Kutzer pictures. They were popular collectibles. On these assignments he worked closely with his son Friedrich Kutzer . The series Costumes and Aviation were almost exclusively joint products with his son.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lorenz, Detlef: Reklamekunst um 1900. Artist lexicon for collecting pictures, Reimer-Verlag, 2000.
personal data
SURNAME Kutzer, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter, graphic artist, author and picture book illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Bohemian Leipa
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1965
Place of death Vienna