Fritz Reuter (painter)

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Fritz Reuter (born January 4, 1895 in Langenselbold , † December 31, 1971 in Trier ) was a German painter .

education

Fritz Reuter first attended the Staatliche Baugewerkschule in Frankfurt am Main to work as a construction technician / architect in his father's branch, a building contractor. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 ended this training prematurely, Reuter was drafted into the military and served as a soldier until 1918. During these war years his decision to devote himself to free painting instead of architecture matured. In 1919 he became a student at the Städelsche Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt am Main, but soon switched to the Düsseldorf Art Academy , where he studied until 1924, a. a. as a master student of Adolf Münzer . Following the example of his teacher, as a member of the renowned artists' association Malkasten in Düsseldorf, he joined its collegial and patronizing network of relationships and belonged to it from 1924 to at least 1955 (gaps in evidence for a few years).

Dusseldorf

Even after his time at the academy, Reuter remained based in Düsseldorf and was successful as a freelance painter with a broad repertoire (portraits, landscapes, pieces of architecture, still lifes). Portrait commissions led him a. a. to Holland and Sweden. Long study trips to South America and the Caribbean and the West Indies followed in 1934 and 1937. In 1932 he took part in the important exhibition Düsseldorf-Munich art in the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf. He was also represented with two paintings at the Great German Art Exhibition initiated by the National Socialists in 1937 in the House of German Art in Munich. At the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 he was called up as Vice Sergeant, but due to his age, Reuter was employed in the police force. Bomb raids on Düsseldorf in 1942 destroyed his studio and apartment.

trier

Trier's district president Heinrich Christian Siekmeier then brokered the transfer of Reuters to Trier and gave him a place to stay in Palais Walderdorff , the seat of government in the city center. Reuter immediately began a series of oil paintings on Trier monuments, which he was able to show in a highly regarded solo exhibition in the newly opened Museum of Trier on Konstantinplatz in September 1943 and which became his most famous group of works (including Trier Cathedral Group; Am Hauptmarkt; Vor St. Gangolf; Grabenstrasse with St. Gangolf; St. Matthias Basilica; Electoral Palace; Kaiserthermen). In a written dedication dated March 17, 1944, Reuter gave the oil painting “Am Hauptmarkt” from this series to the city of Trier under the condition precedent that he died as a result of the war. In the following decades, Reuter continued to work as an independent artist, with his own property in Trier and regular painting stays in his holiday home in Arbos / Spain. In the spring of 1960 he was again represented with a retrospective in the exhibition "Four Painters" in the Museum of the City of Trier in the City Museum Simeonstift Trier . In addition, he exhibited almost regularly at the Society of Fine Artists and Art Friends in Trier and at the European Association of Fine Artists for the Eifel and Ardennes (EVBK) in Prüm, until he was judged from the mid-1960s. After his death, which was rewarded with praising obituaries, there was another solo exhibition in 1979 in the Städtisches Museum Simeonstift Trier and in 1996 in the Heimatmuseum Manderscheid .

Artistic orientation

Influenced by the conservative wing of the Düsseldorf Academy, Reuter devoted himself to a decidedly representational style of painting that stiffened into a leisurely realism , especially during the time of National Socialism . In the above-mentioned views of Trier architectural monuments created in 1942/43, for example, he provided his detailed architectural photos with a softly drawn reverse with pseudo-old-master-style paint in muted yellow-ocher and sfumato effects. He also designed his portraits in a conventionally representative manner (including Lieutenant Colonel C., 1945; entrepreneur S. with a view of his factory premises, 1955) and geared himself towards conservative buyers with numerous pleasing pieces of flowers and still lifes (still life with champagne glass, 1937; vase with autumn flowers, 1952 ). However, Reuter was also good at sketchy, spontaneous access to a motif, for example when looking at the Trier cathedral group that was burning after a bombing in August 1944. When reproducing his relational landscapes in the Moselle region and in Spain, he even approached German Late Impressionism with relaxed brushwork and a palette that was lighter, especially in the older work.

Factory locations

Museum Kunstpalast Foundation, Düsseldorf. City Museum Simeonstift Trier, Museum am Dom Trier. Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier. Extensive private ownership.

literature

  • Reuter, Fritz . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 28 : Ramsden-Rosa . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1934, p. 199 .
  • Reuter, Fritz . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 4 : Q-U . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1958, p. 52 .
  • Bénézit: Dictionary of Artists . Paris 2006, Volume 11, p. 925.
  • Heinz Monz (Hrsg.): Trier Biographical Lexicon . Trier 2000, p. 367.
  • Paul Horn: Düsseldorf graphics in old and new times . Düsseldorf 1928, p. 202.
  • Johannes von Geymüller: The paintings of the 20th century . In: Catalogs of the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf , Volume 3/1, Düsseldorf 1977, pp. 118–119 and ill. Nos. 493 and 494.
  • Karl-Heinz Hering (arrangement): 5 × 30 - Düsseldorf art scene from five generations, 150 years of the art association for the Rhineland and Westphalia 1829–1979 . Düsseldorf 1979.
  • Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf (ed.), Werner Alberg (edit.): Düsseldorfer Kunstszene 1933–1945 . Düsseldorf 1987.
  • Catalog “Düsseldorf-Munich Art Exhibition 1932”, Düsseldorf 1932, exhibit no. 204 “Violin”.
  • Catalog “Great German Art Exhibition 1937 in the House of German Art in Munich”, Munich 1937, exhibits No. 575 “Still life with champagne glass” and 576 “Portrait of my boy”.
  • Catalog "Paintings, watercolors and drawings by Fritz Reuter", exhibition in the Museum of the City of Trier on Konstantinplatz - September 1943, introduction by Walter Dieck, Trier 1943.
  • Catalogs of the annual exhibitions 1950–1959 and 1965 in the Museum of the City of Trier, organized by the Society of Fine Artists and Art Friends e. V. Trier.
  • Catalog "4 painters - Fritz Reuter, Ernst Brand, Prof. Müller-Linow, Anton Veit", April / May 1960, Museum of the City of Trier in the Simeonstift, Trier 1960.
  • Catalogs of the annual exhibitions 1960, 1963–1966 and 1968 of the European Association of Fine Artists from Eifel and Ardennes in Prüm, Trier City Library, Sign. Z 1907.
  • Walter Dieck: Trier painter: Fritz Reuter . In: New Trierisches Jahrbuch , 1972, pp. 52–56.
  • Catalog “Fritz Reuter (1895–1971) - Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings from Trier's Private Collection”, exhibition June / July 1979 in the Städtisches Museum Simeonstift Trier, with a reprint of Walter Dieck's contribution in the New Trier Yearbook 1972, as above.
  • Mathilde Krämer: Memories of the painter Fritz Reuter . In: New Trierisches Jahrbuch , 1996, pp. 251–256.
  • Peter Seewaldt: Catalog of the paintings in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier . In: Trier Journal , 77/78, 2014/15, pp. 357–358.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ His few graphic works do not justify the designation as an eraser, which is sometimes used in the literature (e.g. Thieme-Becker, Paul Horn, see below).
  2. ^ Exhibition catalog Trier 1943 (cf. lit. catalog) with autobiographical information from the painter to Dr. Walter Dieck, then director of the so-called Museum of the City of Trier on Konstantinplatz, today the City Museum Simeonstift Trier.
  3. ↑ Sabine Schroyen MA, archiv@malkasten.org, information from December 12, 2016.
  4. ↑ Reuter's participation in the regular exhibitions of the Kunstverein der Rheinlande und Westfalen is not verifiable except for participation in “Bildnisse und Landschaft”, 1932.
  5. ↑ Exhibition catalog 1937 (see below), p. 67; [1]
  6. ↑ Press reports in the National Gazette of 11/12. and September 15, 1943: Walter Dieck: "Fritz Reuter exhibition in Trier - a painting show of great artistic charm" and A. Hunscha: "In the Fritz Reuter exhibition - a painting show that brings joy", city library / city archive Trier, newspaper collection.
  7. ↑ Copy of the document, wording (excerpt): "that I should not return alive after my upcoming assignment to the security service in Greece or any other military assignment in the current war." Stadtbibliothek / Stadtarchiv Trier, autograph collection.
  8. ↑ Many pictures testify to his art - Fritz Reuter died at the age of 77 - Trier had been his second home since 1942 - widely known and honored as a landscape painter and portraitist . In: Trierischer Volksfreund , January 3, 1972. In memoriam Fritz Reuter . In: Trierische Landeszeitung , January 3, 1972.
personal data
SURNAME Reuter, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Langenselbold
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1971
Place of death trier