Franz Xaver Schwarz (painter)

Franz Xaver Schwarz (born November 29, 1822 in Rottenburg am Neckar , † July 24, 1904 in Stuttgart ) was a portrait painter from Württemberg who was closely associated with Rottenburg and founded the Rottenburg School of Applied Arts.

Live and act

Franz Xaver Schwarz came from the "honorable city council family of the 'Schlossermartene'", Martin Schwarz (1781–1850), a master locksmith who was also a councilor, and his wife Katharina nee. Schraivogel (1791-1859). After elementary school he attended the municipal secondary school in Rottenburg. He was physically weak and in poor health, so that he was sick again and again. Although he had shown artistic talent as a boy, his parents wanted him to learn a down-to-earth profession. Taking into account his health constitution, they designated him for the pastry apprenticeship that he completed in Rottenburg. In 1847, at the age of 24, he went to Stuttgart to gain further experience as a pastry chef and during the two years he spent there, he gained a good reputation with several companies. But he didn't feel fulfilled because he wasn't using his talent properly.

In 1849 he went to the art academy in Munich , where he studied portrait painting . He was an enthusiastic and eager student who devoted every minute to mastering the painting technique and composition in order to be able to create expressive images. Soon he could compete with the best of his time and attract the attention of the highest circles.

In 1851 Schwarz returned to Rottenburg and shortly afterwards - as his first work in Rottenburg - he painted a portrait of the twenty-six-year-old Josefine Fischer, daughter of the Waldhorn host Andreas Fischer. Soon he took over the position of drawing teacher. The royal Württemberg government councilor Ferdinand von Steinbeis , who was then head of the Central Office for Trade and Industry, soon recognized Schwarz's artistic talent and sent him talented students who were to learn art with the help of state grants. With the support of Steinbeis, Schwarz was able to expand his school into the first arts and crafts school in Württemberg - a school that combined teaching and workshop. In order to promote the artistic education of the students, school exhibitions were organized in Stuttgart at that time. The work of the Rottenburg students was so different from the level of other work that there were differences as to whether they could still be admitted at all. They only owed the final approval to a decision by Steinbeis, who saw the highest achievement as the highest goal of the teaching and liked to see the work of Rottenburger pupils as jewels of the school exhibitions. Schwarz had very good contact with his students, like a father who not only found time to talk to them, but also, if necessary, helped with his money. His students included Albert Hahn, who later became a professor and head of a state carving school in Hungary ; Hofmeister in Transylvania ; Ferdinand Huttenlocher, later teacher at the arts and crafts school in Bern († 1880); Koch, later professor and school director in Furtwangen ; Bonifaz Locher , later painter in Munich; Sautermeister, later sculptor and teacher at the municipal trade school in Stuttgart; Schiebel, later drawing teacher in Rottenburg; Weidle, later a drawing teacher in Tübingen and Wiedenmaier, later a painter in Rottenburg.

In addition to his educational work, Schwarz systematically portrayed. In view of his services, he received the title of professor from King Karl von Württemberg in 1869 . When he retired in 1882, he received the Württemberg Medal for Art and Science. As a result of an accident, his house burned down in May 1897. Since he was almost 75 at the time and his health was poor, he decided to move to Stuttgart with his younger sister Pauline.

Black was characterized by a certain individual will and tenacious perseverance. He relied on himself first of all. He was tied to his homeland and his Catholic faith was shaped by "pure piety". During his lifetime he was well known in Rottenburg.

As early as 1906 it was originally intended to organize an exhibition of his paintings in his memory in connection with the trade exhibition. This project had to be abandoned because the number of objects that were to be shown in the trade exhibition turned out to be so large that there were no rooms in Rottenburg that could hold the painting exhibition at the same time. This was made up for in 1914 as part of the second Rottenburg painting exhibition, a series that was initiated and named by Karl Schickhardt in 1912 . Since all of the paintings, with only one exception, were in the possession of different private individuals, it was laborious to bring them all together. The second painting exhibition, which was dedicated to the memory of Franz Xaver Schwarz, showed, in addition to his paintings, pictures by Eugen Hofmeister , Karl Schickhardt, Willy Planck , a woman Finanzrat Bader née. Hohnerlein and a painter M. Keller from Tübingen who works in Munich, as well as sculptures by Theodor Schnell and "Gebrüder Richard Walz".

Franz Xaver Schwarz is largely forgotten these days. It's because he painted portraits that ended up in private hands. No museum - not even the Sülchgau Museum in Rottenburg - owns his paintings. The art historian Werner Fleischhauer judged: "Among his numerous portraits there are strong and lively alongside quite conventional ones in the sense of the modern portrait concept."

Works (selection)

All of the works mentioned here are oil paintings on linen and were shown in the memorial exhibition from May 30th to July 20th 1914 in the Klause in Rottenburg. There are two views in this list, but these are exceptions, as a rule, that Schwarz only painted portraits.

• Martin Schwarz (born September 16, 1781 - † August 11, 1850), father (painted from memory)
• Katharina Schwarz born Schraivogel (March 5, 1791; † August 7, 1859), mother
• Elisabeth Schwarz (born November 19, 1824 - † January 13, 1890), sister
• Pauline Schwarz (born June 18, 1827; September 4, 1905), sister
• Johann Abbt (March 1, 1891 - January 11, 1877), lithographer and bookbinder in Rottenburg
• Helene Baur, daughter of the senior medical officer in Rottenburg
• Marquard Daub, Rottenburg, the councilor in Ulm was
• Franz von Falkenstein (born October 8, 1808, † January 4, 1878), officer (most recently major general ) in the royal Württemberg cavalry regiment
• Marie Therese von Falkenstein b. von Krafft-Festenberg (born June 14, 1829 - August 10, 1913), wife of the previous one
• Josefine Fischer (born March 13, 1825), daughter of the Waldhorn host Andreas Fischer, later treasurer of the Elisabethenverein and holder of the Karl Olga Medal (painted 1851)
• Creszentia Fischer, married Pfeifer (born January 22, 1831), younger sister of Josefine Fischer
• Karl Gfrörer (born April 21, 1807 - December 10, 1872), economist , innkeeper and post office owner in Rottenburg
• Matthäus Heberle (born September 21, 1810 - March 21, 1904), honorary member of the Catholic journeyman's association and the veteran's association
• Martin Hofmeister (born November 3, 1812 - † January 29, 1864), wine merchant and economist, father of Eugen Hofmeister
• Katharina Hofmeister b. Pfeifer (born September 30, 1819 - † August 9, 1871), mother of Eugen Hofmeister
• Berta Holzherr (1832–1869), sister of the Rottenburg municipal council and honorary citizen Gustav Holzherr , merciful sister in Strasbourg
• Franz Ignaz von Jaumann (born January 26, 1778; † January 12, 1862), dean , parish priest and honorary citizen of Rottenburg (the copy painted by K. Gerhardt in Wiesbaden was given to the city of Rottenburg by Alfred Jaumann)
• Franz Xaver Klotz (* 2 December 1791; † 2 July 1875), Oberamts locum tenens in Tuttlingen , episcopal secretary
• Maria Elisabeth Klotz b. Huber (April 12, 1800 - January 1, 1869), wife of the previous one
• Andreas Köberle (born November 24, 1802; † May 25, 1881), teacher, head of the preparatory school , organist and choir director in Rottenburg
• Anton Martin (born September 17, 1825 - October 30, 1863), apothecary to the unicorn in Rottenburg
• Walburga Martin b. Holzherr (born January 7, 1834), wife of the previous one and later nun in Graz
• Wendelin Neuer (born October 14, 1810; † July 21, 1891), councilor , member of the Rottenburg municipal council
• Josefine Neuer born Bellino (May 12, 1812 - December 24, 1859), wife of the previous one
• Anton Pfeifer (1809–1868), merchant and long-time councilor of Rottenburg
• Anna Probst b. Raidt (* August 25, 1833 - † August 15, 1907), wife of the Oberforstrat Moritz von Probst in Ellwangen (painted in March 1857)
• Adolf Raidt (born September 2, 1802 - † September 18, 1863), owner of the spa in Bad Niedernau
• Anna Maria Raidt b. Hofmeister (born March 6, 1805 - † November 6, 1869), wife of the previous one
• Matthäus Rebstock (* 1810; † April 30, 1892), owner of a soap factory , freight carrier to Stuttgart and local councilor
• Constantin Riedlinger (born May 19, 1821), economist and landowner at Roseck Castle
• Anna Riedlinger born Probst (born December 3, 1822), wife of the previous one, daughter of the chief tribunal councilor Franz von Probst, friend of Ottilie Wildermuth
• Karl von Schach (born September 16, 1781; † July 6, 1853), Austrian officer (most recently major ) in Hussar Regiment No. VI, "King of Württemberg"
• Fidel Schnell (born March 24, 1797), major of the city guard, police inspector and city councilor of Rottenburg
• Marie Anna Stemmler b. Vollmer, mother of the businessman Anton Stemmler who died in Biberach
• Wilhelm von Tessin (born June 4, 1819), baron of Kilchberg
• Sophie von Tessin born of Ticino (born July 29, 1825), wife of the previous one
• Konrad Vollmer (born November 18, 1806; † March 8, 1878), pastor in Wasserstetten and Daugendorf , "Kamerer für Ulm"
• Karl Weller (born March 10, 1843 - † June 26, 1889), Rottenburger Kronenwirt
• Karl Winghofer (born October 9, 1828, † January 25, 1889), deserving Rottenburg teacher, organist and choir director
• Wife and child of the sculptor Andreas Colyns de Nole, copy after a picture from the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (painted while studying, around 1850)
• Girl with strawberries
• Portrait of a man, copy after a painting by Rembrandt van Rijn in the Alte Pinakothek (painted during his student days, around 1850)
• An actress from Nuremberg
• Reading girl
• Study of an Apostle
• View of the old hermitage with "Wirtschaft zur Unnot"
• View of the old hermitage with cherry pit

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ Winghofer: Second Rottenburger Painting Exhibition ... , p 8 and 10 respectively.
2. ↑ Winghofer: Second Rottenburger Painting Exhibition ... , pp 8-9.
3. ↑ Winghofer: Second Rottenburger Painting Exhibition ... , p 9-10.
4. ↑ Winghofer: Second Rottenburger Painting Exhibition ... , p. 10
5. ↑ ^{a b} Winghofer: Second Rottenburg Painting Exhibition ... , p. 8.
6. ↑ Guide through the second Rottenburg painting exhibition from May 30th to July 20th 1914 in the hermitage. Pp. 14, 17, 24, 25, 26, 28.
7. ↑ Werner Fleischhauer: The portrait in Württemberg 1760-1860. History, artists and culture. Metzler, Stuttgart 1939, p. 236.
8. ^ Guide through the second Rottenburg painting exhibition from May 30 to July 20, 1914 in the Klause , pp. 10-13.

literature

• Rottenburg artists and artisans in the 19th century. In: The Sülchgau. 54/55 (2010/11).
• Werner Fleischhauer : The portrait in Württemberg 1760-1860. History, artists and culture. Metzler, Stuttgart 1939, p. 236.
• Winghofer: Second Rottenburg painting exhibition in memory of Professor Franz Xaver Schwarz. In: Guide through the second Rottenburg painting exhibition from May 30 to July 20, 1914 in the hermitage. Rottenburg 1914.