Fritz Baumgarten (illustrator)

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Friedrich Karl Baumgarten (born August 18, 1883 in Reudnitz near Leipzig; † November 3, 1966 in Leipzig ) was a German children's / picture book illustrator , lithographer , draftsman and painter . He is considered the "father" of the dwarf stories, which are still widespread today, who created the typical "Baumgarten dwarf style" with his clear, strongly colored pictures and simple shapes.

Life

Friedrich Karl Baumgarten, known as Fritz all his life, was the youngest of three children of the bookbinder Martin Konrad Baumgarten and his wife Wilhelmine Henriette, nee. Henning. His grandfather was the portrait painter and draftsman Johann Friedrich August Baumgarten. After training as a lithographer at the Leipzig printing company JG Fritsche AG, he studied from 1903 to 1905 at the Royal Academy of Art in Dresden and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich . While still a student he was called up for military service in the Royal 11th Field Artillery Regiment in Würzburg . In 1908 Baumgarten, who describes himself as a "commercial artist", returned to Leipzig . The artist initially earned his living with casual work and with the design of picture and postcards, which are now collector's items. During the First World War he fought in France a. a. also at Verdun. For his services he was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class.

Fritz Baumgarten was married to Elsa Hollburg since 1926. Two sons were born to the couple, and the firstborn was only 14 days old. At the beginning of December 1944 the house where the Baumgarten family lived also went up in flames during the nightly bombing raid on Leipzig:

“Many pictures and mementos are lost. Fortunately, some works have been outsourced to friends and relatives. This prevents the loss of all property. "

- Karl Blaume

After a stopover in Sachsenberg-Georgenthal , where the artist was obliged to work in an armaments factory, the Baumgartens moved to Reichenbach . In the summer of 1946 the family returned to Leipzig, Connewitz district. Fritz Baumgarten, who joined the Free German Trade Union Federation around the mid-1950s, immediately made contact with various publishers in West and East Germany, such as Lange & Meuche Verlag, Scholz Verlag , Engelbert Dessart Verlag , Titania Verlag and the like. Disguised as “little pictures for the little nieces and nephews”, the artist sent his illustrations to West Germany. The fee was sent to him in kind or credited to accounts in the West. Around the beginning of the 1960s, his creative power waned, Fritz Baumgarten was almost 80 years old, and the number of children's / picture books he published annually fell significantly.

A few months after the death of his wife, the 83-year-old artist committed suicide.

Research situation, work and meaning

Between the early 1920s and 1960 he published well over 500 works for children (some also for young people), the majority of them before the Second World War . This also includes fairy tales, legends and folk books as well as stories for young people, advent calendars, and illustrated picture books on fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm , such as Little Red Riding Hood (1928), Hansel and Gretel (1928), Sleeping Beauty (1935), Frau Holle (1938) or The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats (probably 1928). The last-mentioned fairy tale picture book was rated as follows:

This beautiful fairy tale, which belongs to the inventory of real German folk tales, is presented with pictures that impressively accompany the text, with full-page colored prints that capture the highlights and interspersed or framed tone prints in the text. The pictures are large, evocative - albeit somewhat uniform -, rich in detail, show the animal in its characteristic peculiarities and only occasionally bring clothing (skirt, blouse, apron) - for example to underline the motherly aspect of the old goat. Such a measure fits perfectly with the fairy tale. On the whole a pleasant book.

The more than ninety picture books published after 1945 (for example by Abel & Müller Verlag, Engelbert Dessart Verlag, Titania-Verlag, Pestalozzi-Verlag, with verses / texts by Helle Carola Gärtner-Scholle , Gisela Fischer, Ruth Kraft , Liselotte Burger , Helge Darnstädt , Lena Hahn , Erich Heinemann and others) reached a circulation of almost one million to date. Some critics disavowed his artistic legacy as “pure kitsch”. It is therefore not surprising that he is almost completely ignored in the relevant publications in the history of illustration on children's and youth literature:

“Unfortunately, he wasn't entirely innocent of it himself. He made the mistake of resorting to the Hummel figure cliché for the portrayal of children, especially in his later works, often a little routine work, probably a concession to the publishers in the hope of even higher print runs. More than this - measured by his drawing quality - really incomprehensible mistakes have damaged him his countless epigones, which took over the basic patterns of his pictures, but did not even come close to the technical skills and his admirable knowledge of nature. "

- Inge Sauer

In the 1920s and 1960s, Fritz Baumgarten's “accumulation of visual stimuli”, to which children spontaneously react positively, was criticized, and in particular his “naive realism”, which “is flat through clear contours of forms, lack of space, bright, unmixed colors and unmodulated paint application as well as familiar image motifs. Another feature of his illustrations is the ' child scheme ', which makes the figures (especially his elves) appear 'simply cute'. Its visual aesthetics also enable a simple printing process and thus an extremely low sales price. "

The graphic artist and illustrator Ernst Kreidolf had a decisive influence on his picture book style. He had clearly committed himself to him, especially regarding the anthropomorphization of the animal, dwarf and plant world. Fritz Baumgarten, in turn, inspired the artist Lore Hummel . The books of the “Kreidolf-Epigonen”, populated by little teddies, field, forest and meadow dwellers of all kinds and very often also by funny and caring gnomes / dwarfs, have meanwhile become classics of children's literature. Many of Fritz Baumgarten's works are still in new editions today, including a. Pestalozzi-Verlag , Beltz & Gelberg Verlag (Parabel), Titania Verlag , Terzio Verlag and Esslinger Verlag available. The Titania publishing house advertises Fritz Baumgarten's picture books in its latest booklet, Wonderful Wichtelwelt :

“Fritz Baumgarten (1883–1966) is one of the most famous German children's book illustrators. His picture books in particular have sold millions and are among the classics of the genre. Even today they enchant big readers and small listeners with their nostalgia, cheerful illustrations and wonderful verses. "

- Titania publishing house

Between 1924 and 1936 he illustrated 10 picture books to verses by Albert Sixtus , including such well-known classics such as The Dog Circus (1930), The Forest School (1935), The Blumenelfchen (1935) and Spring is here (1936). Between 1916 and 1940 he illustrated 15 picture books on verses by Adolf Holst , including The Colorful Nest (1940).

The artist had also illustrated several board games in the 1920s and 1930s, and in some cases after the Second World War: Stop! mein Hut (1920), Das Struwwelpeterspiel (1926), Fuchs aus dem Loch (1927), Uncle Pinkepank on the world tour (1928), to name but a few. He also drove for Herzblätchen's pastime. A yearbook for the children's world , founded by Thekla von Gumpert , u. a. for volumes 71, 72, 75 and 78 illustrations in and for the third volume of the Pucki series by Magda Trott Pucki and her friends (1936).

His pixie / dwarf advent calendars, such as the Fritz Baumgarten advent calendar , heaven music or sleigh rides , were still very popular (for example by Adolf Korsch Verlag or Terzio Verlag ) :

"Fritz Baumgarten, one of the most famous illustrators of the time, had taken over his popular elf characters from children's books into the Advent calendar ... What Adolf Korsch had accepted, happened: all calendars based on Fritz Baumgarten's designs were sold well, many could be reissued, and some are - with interruptions - still in the program today. "

- Esther Gajek

His artistic work in criticism

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  • The quality of his illustrations varies considerably. While the best of these, although fixated on the style of the period before the war, can definitely be counted among the justifiable books of use, one notices a dwindling of strength and a slipping into routine in the later works .
  • Baumgarten gave the dwarfs their final appearance: the much too big, chunky slippers (which are also attracted to beetles and bees), the trouser legs with 'flood', the hooded jacket, small, funny pinched pig eyes, a long, white beard and red, prominent cheeks (due to the constantly drawn up laughing corners of the mouth). Her main occupation was and is singing, eating, drinking and having fun ... The small animals of the forest, from rabbits down to hedgehogs, mice, birds and grasshoppers became constant companions, guests, patients but also servants of the elf people. .. There is no doubt that there is something immensely homely and cozy about dwarf stories, especially Baumgartner's representations. Pictures and stories that exude such a feeling of security represent a tempting dream world in view of our technical and concrete environment, whose small inhabitants are also ideal objects of identification for children .
  • Fritz Baumgarten follows the tradition of the picture book artist Ernst Kreidolf, who is 20 years his senior. For example, he took over the personification of nature from him ... Kreidolf and Baumgarten, with their artistic style, have gained new pages and possibilities from the fantastic picture / children's book. Their personified pixies, bees, beetles, rabbits etc. represent a self-contained counterworld to the surrounding real world with all its conflicts and crises ... Countless epigones of the two artists have adopted their compositional principles and with their 'cute' pixies, dressed and hearty animals, as well as the sweetened flora, made advances far beyond the limit of the still beneficial kitsch.
  • Without a doubt: Fritz Baumgarten does not address problems in his works. A sports festival is organized, a wedding, birthday or Christmas is celebrated as the most atmospheric of all festivals with plenty of sweets and snow magic in forest caves or meadows ... In spite of the happy, carefree world of nature and pixies, however, he does not enjoy the joy of drawing stories and a very differentiated one Discuss the view of the (anthropomorphized) fauna and flora. In spite of everything, his brightly colored and heavily constructed drawings are characterized by a high degree of security in presentation, coloring and composition. The artist knew how to create mood and atmosphere. Nothing seems calculated in his illustrations, nothing 'artificial'. If you look at Fritz Baumgarten's work, you feel that there is an artist behind him who is sure of his effect .
  • The pictures from the early 1920s are brightly colored and strongly outlined. They appear flat and striking ... The perspective is exact, the movements pleasing and the respective material is reproduced in a characteristic way ... In the stitching, still carried out sparingly, without major details, the image content of the books from the 1920s already reveals the most precise knowledge of nature and again and again inexhaustible humor .
  • His style is romantic, the compositions are playful and humorous. The cheerful, subdued coloring is finely nuanced. Black and white outline ill. are suitable for coloring. Faces are often marked with spärl. Lines indicated, while animals with human. Functions, plants and objects are worked through in more detail .
  • In her extensive thesis, Susanna Deuringer listed several reviews of the artist's illustrations from specialist journals for kindergarten education at the time (such as children's homes and kindergartens ). These show how ambivalent Fritz Baumgarten's work was. Here are a few excerpts: There are a number of picture books from Verlag Josef Scholz, Mainz, before u. a .: Colorful … Maybe the book is even too colorful. There are too many impressions for the child to absorb. It cannot linger in peace with an object ... Bad luck over bad luck ... Some of the pictures are not bad ... Hush, hush, through forest and bush ... Verses by well-known poets ... are illustrated here with pretty pictures. It is nice that the animals stay in their natural environment throughout ... Gickel, gackel, gackel ... The animal pictures are quite good and clear ... The pictures are painted on durable, stiff cardboard ... The trip to wonderland ... This kind of sequence of images is very reminiscent of Reveu, where incoherent stuff was strung together in noisy bustle without becoming a convincing unit. From an educator's point of view, we must reject the confusing abundance of objects and a treatment of the environment that contradicts the truth of nature and the imaginative revitalization of nature, in the sense of childlike vision. The marginal drawings for the text as well as the endpaper are based on a much healthier conception and give rise to the thought that the artist would not have to make these concessions to a public taste that had been overcome and would be able to do better. The judgment applies to the same extent to the picture book from the same publisher. The forest school ... can only be called a clumsy and bad modification of the very popular 'bunny school' ... It is characteristic of it that it can be given less value in terms of content and form; it is only of skilled craftsmanship, but without any creative obligation from strong emotional resonance. - How far are such picture books from the honest, loyal and folk art of the unfortunately almost forgotten Munich and Neurupin picture sheets! .
  • In 1893, the art historian Konrad von Lange recommended painting as simply as possible, flat and with little perspective, in accordance with the child's understanding. Gertrud Caspari is considered to be the main representative of such a 'childish flat style' . Baumgarten's early works seem to be based on their works. Like 'Struwwelhanne', they are characterized by strong outlines and a flat application of paint ... Baumgarten's later works clearly differ stylistically from his earlier works. These images are often cut out. They show snapshots of a wonderful nature, which one would like to immerse into, not least because of its love for detail and the atmospheric atmosphere .

Exhibitions

For the first time, from December 7, 1995 to February 25, 1996, the castle museum in Bad Pyrmont dedicated an exhibition to the artist: “Just walk in! Life and work of Fritz Baumgarten (1883–1966) ”. A catalog was also published, so far the first and only publication that deals in detail with the life and work of the children's / picture book illustrator.

From November 18, 2010 to February 27, 2011, an exhibition in the Wittelsbacher Schloss in Friedberg was dedicated to Fritz Baumgarten . His son Gert Baumgarten came to the exhibition opening. He reported that "even during the worst of times, his father had drawn gnomes and dwarves." Even when the tanks drove by outside at the end of the Second World War, the artist and his family had been evacuated to the Vogtland, Fritz Baumgarten continued to paint his peaceful pictures.

Works (selection)

Esslinger Verlag / Alfred Hahn's Verlag

Parabel Verlag , Beltz & Gelberg :

Titania Verlag , Terzio Verlag :

literature

  • Klaus Doderer , Helmut Müller (ed.): The picture book. History and development of the picture book in Germany from the beginning to the present. Weinheim / Basel 1975.
  • Klaus Doderer (ed.): Lexicon of children's and youth literature. Supplementary and register volume, Weinheim / Basel 1982.
  • Karl Blaume: Life and Work. In: Karl Blaume (Ed.): Just walk in! Life and work of Fritz Baumgarten (1883–1966). Bad Pyrmont 1995, pp. 7-17.
  • Inge Sauer: How lucky can you be? On the image reception of Fritz Baumgarten, In: Karl Blaume (Ed.): Just always walk in! Life and work of Fritz Baumgarten (1883–1966). Bad Pyrmont 1995, pp. 24-27.
  • Esther Gajek : Advent calendar from the beginning to the present. Munich undated
  • KG Sauer Verlag (Hrsg.): General artist lexicon. Volume 7, Munich / Leipzig 1993, p. 606.
  • Museum in Wittelsbach Castle Friedberg (ed.): Magical! Picture book illustrations by Fritz Baumgarten. (Brochure for the exhibition), Friedberg 2010.
  • Manfred Berger : Fritz (Friedrich Karl) Baumgarten. In: Kurt Franz, Günter Lange, Franz-Josef Payrhuber (Hrsg.): Children's and youth literature - a lexicon. (Loose-leaf collection). Meitingen 1995 ff; 45th result. 2012, pp. 1–32.

documentary

  • Fritz Baumgarten: In the fairy tale realm of the picture book. Documentary film, 30 min., Br alpha and mdr, "CV 1995"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Blaume 1995, p. 14.
  2. ↑ Blaume 1995, p. 17.
  3. ↑ cit. n. Berger 2020, p. 13.
  4. ↑ Sauer 1995, p. 24.
  5. ↑ cit. n. Berger 2012, p. 8.
  6. ↑ Doderer 1982, p. 136.
  7. ↑ http://www.titania-verlag.de/site/habenprogramm.php?kat=baumgarten
  8. ↑ http://www.terzio.de/fritz-baumgarten.html
  9. ^ Fritz Baumgarten. Thienemann-Esslinger Verlag GmbH, accessed on May 30, 2019 .
  10. ^ Advertising brochure Titania Verlag o. O .; no year
  11. ^ Family Heinsohn: Editions by Magda Trott. Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Gajek n.d., p. 115.
  13. ↑ Doderer / Müller 1975, p. 261.
  14. ↑ cit. n. Berger 2012, p. 7.
  15. ↑ cit. n. Berger 2012, p. 8.
  16. ↑ cit. n. Berger 2012, p. 9.
  17. ↑ Blaume 1995, p. 9.
  18. ^ KG Saur 1993, p. 606.
  19. ↑ cf. Berger 2012, p. 9 ff.
  20. ^ Museum in Wittelsbach Castle Friedberg 2010, p. 8.
  21. ↑ http://www.museum-friedberg.de/news_details.php?id=131
  22. ↑ http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/Home/Lokales/Friedberg/Lokalnewa/Artikel,-Eine-friedvolle-und-grenzenlose-Welt-_arid,2297775_regid,6_puid,2_pageid,4494.html
  23. ↑ http://www.imdb.de/title/tt1145258/
personal data
SURNAME Baumgarten, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baumgarten, Fritz Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German children's book illustrator and picture book artist, lithographer, draftsman and painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Reudnitz
DATE OF DEATH 3rd November 1966
Place of death Leipzig