Franz Karl Delavilla

Portrait drawing autographed by FK Delavilla, made by Erich Dittmann , one of his students at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main

Franz Karl Delavilla (born December 6, 1884 in Vienna , † August 2, 1967 in Frankfurt am Main ) was an Austrian-German graphic artist, illustrator, designer and art professor.

education

Born in Vienna, he first received a one-year training at the Technological Trade Museum Vienna and then from 1901 to 1903 he was a student at the KK Technical School for Textile Industry Vienna. In 1903 he received the 1st prize for the best work in drawing in the competition of the Lower Austrian Trade Association.

From 1903 to 1908 he was a state scholarship holder at the arts and crafts school of the KK Austrian Museum for Art and Industry, where he taught among others Carl Otto Czeschka and Bertold Löffler . From 1907 he received his first orders for applied arts and from the same year worked at “ Wiener Werkstätte GmbH”, a production group of visual artists that existed from 1904 to 1932. Designs for jewelry, fashion, stage sets, posters, cards for various occasions and the illustration of books were his profession. From 1908 the workshop held an art show every year, where works by Delavilla were also shown.

Teaching until 1944

1908/09 Delavilla accepted a teaching position at the Magdeburg School of Applied Arts and from 1909 to 1913 at the Hamburg School of Applied Arts .

From 1913 to 1920 he headed the class for "Free graphics and flat art" at the arts and crafts school of the Central German Arts and Crafts Association of the Polytechnic Society in Frankfurt am Main. In 1914 he was awarded the "Golden Prize" of the International Exhibition for Book Trade and Graphics in Leipzig and in the same year took part in the Werkbund exhibition in Cologne.

From 1917 to 1933 he worked part-time as a stage designer in Frankfurt am Main and Darmstadt. He was also a member of the Dresden Secession Group in 1919 . In 1922 he became a teacher at the Frankfurt Städelschule and led the lithography class , in 1923 he was appointed professor. In 1936 he and his colleagues Hugo Bäppler and Albert Windisch accepted an order from the Reich Ministry of War and designed common rooms with a class in the newly built Olympic Village in Berlin. For this design with memorable images of the German landscape, he and his group received an "Olympic Medal" from Adolf Hitler .

In 1943 he took part in the exhibition Young Art in the German Reich in Vienna, organized by Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach , and thus came under criticism from conservative Nazi circles. In 1944 he was given early retirement.

Post-war activity

During the Second World War , Delavilla's Frankfurt studio burned down with many of his works. Awards he had received during the Nazi era prevented his application for reparation from being successful after the war . In 1946 he was given back his professorship at the Städelschule and finally retired in 1950. In 1955 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class, in 1959 the plaque of honor of the city of Frankfurt am Main and the Goethe plaque of the state of Hesse . His grave is in the Frankfurt main cemetery .

In 2004 the Kronberg Gallery exhibited some of his works.

Publications

• Arthur Roessler: The dialogue from Pierrot and other essays , Vienna: Karl Graeser [1907] (cover / cover by Delavilla)
• The Baron von Münchhausen's adventure and travel . Edit again by Alois Th. Schlagbrandtner. Book decoration by Franz K. Delavilla, Vienna: Graeser & Kie., Around 1910
• Our Hamburg . Edited by the journalists 'and writers' association for Hamburg, Altona and the surrounding area. With book decoration by FK Delavilla, Hamburg 1911, 116 pages (also other editions)
• War picture sheet by German artists , folder III, Munich: Goltz-Verlag 1915
• The trip to the sea . Fairy tales by Maria Benemann and headboards by FK Delavilla, Weimar: Kiepenheuer 1915, 95 pp.
• Gottfried Gurcke: Hamburg primer edited by W.Böhling, J.Spiering and A.Winckler. Images by FK Delavilla. Script by Chr.Seemann , 244th revised edition, Hamburg: Otto Meißner, 1917
• German stage. Yearbook of the Frankfurt Municipal Theaters . On behalf of the Generalintendanz ed. v. Georg J. Plotke. Volume 1: 1917/1918 season. With 6 (1 color) plates (with stage designs by Delavilla and others) and 7 images in the text, Frankfurt / Main: Rütten & Loening 1919, 4 ll., 402 pp.
• Clara Berg: Schnurli-Butzli and other German fairy tales with pictures KF Delavilla , Frankfurt / Main: Englert and Schlosser, 20. – 30. Tausend, ca.1925, 123 pp.
• Wilhelm Fronemann : Bundschuh fly! A picture of the great peasant uprising in 1525 . With pictures by FK Delavilla, Stuttgart: Loewe 1936, 3rd edition 1942

literature

• Young Vienna. Results from the Vienna School of Applied Arts. Drafts for architecture and surface decorations by young Viennese artists. Architectures and models, gardens, interiors, furniture, sculptures, as well as posters, paintings, ceramics, studies and decorative woodcuts, ornamental fonts, end paper and wallpaper, weaving and embroidery . Darmstadt: A. Koch 1905, 71 pp.
• Art. Monthly booklets for free and applied arts , Volume 40: Applied art of "Decorative Art", vol. 22nd, Munich: F. Bruckmann 1919 (with a contribution about the stage design and equipment by Delavilla).
• Oskar Fischel: The modern stage design , Berlin: Wasmuth (1923), 142 pp.
• Delavilla, Franz K. In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 1 : A-D . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1953, p. 537 .
• Art Nouveau postcards . Edited and with an afterword by H. Dichand. With a biographical appendix of the performing artists by M. Martischnig. Gütersloh: Book Association (around 1980), 174 pages (with maps from Delavilla)
• Franz Karl Delavilla: Stage designs for the world premiere of "Urfaust" , Frankfurt 1918, in: Hofmannsthal-Blätter, issue 30, autumn 1984, p. 60 f.
• Werner J. Schweiger: picture sheet of the Wiener Werkstätte , Vienna: Ed. Brandstätter 1986.
• Werner J. Schweiger, The Wiener Werkstätte. Arts and Crafts 1903–32 , 1982.
• Constanze Neuendorf-Müller: Franz Carl Delavilla (1884–1967), painter, graphic artist, craftsperson and set designer , dissertation Frankfurt / M. 1998.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hubert Salden (Ed.): The Städelschule Frankfurt am Main 1817 to 1995. Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 1995, ISBN 3-87439-333-X , p. 154