Hermann croissant

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hermann Croissant (born July 17, 1897 in Landau ; † 1963 ) was a German painter and member of the Palatinate Artists Working Group (APK).

His works include still lifes, landscapes, wall paintings and depictions of people in watercolors and oil paintings, which are still auctioned today. His style was significantly influenced by Albert Haueisen , Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh . The aim of his painting is harmony and beauty, which he creates through accentuated and two-dimensional application of paint and is referred to as "decorative expressionism".

Life

Born the second of three children into a family of artists and collectors with Huguenot roots, his father Philipp Croissant (March 13, 1866– December 13, 1935), his mother Luise, nee. Schlosser, his sister Else (May 19, 1896) and brother Richard (March 11, 1899, died at the age of 24). Hermann Croissant attended the weekday school in Landau from May 1903 to July 1907 and the Royal Realschule in Landau from September 1907 to July 1913. There he distinguished himself as an exemplary student, so that the oral exams were waived for him due to excellent written performance.

After all, he couldn't finish school early enough to pursue his passion for painting and drawing. On a winter's day in 1911, Ludwig Herthel discovered young Hermann Croissant painting landscapes outside in the cold and praised him. Since then they have been in contact, so that a father-son relationship soon developed and Croissant got to know other artists such as Adolf Doerner , Hermann Sauter or Haueisen. At the age of 16, from 1912 to 1913, he finally became a private student of Albert Haueisen in Karlsruhe . Here, too, students and masters were very close, because Haueisen valued the docile and talented character of Hermann Croissant, which is clear in various correspondence. However, his teacher was reluctant to see the influence of the modern art movement on his student. In 1912, Hermann Croissant returned to the Sonderbund exhibition, impressed by Vincent van Gogh and Cézanne, where he admired the freedom in the use of color and the philosophy of painting as a process of perfection, as a finding of the self and nature. Haueisen, on the other hand, gave the pupil a more manual, traditional and less provocative way. Both influences are reflected in Hermann Croissant's works.

He then moved in 1916 to Munich to the master class of Becker Gundahl at the Academy of Fine Arts to visit - after a brief detour in 1914 to drawing school of Knirr. There are some correspondence from this time, including a. with Hermann Croissant's long-time friend, the art teacher Richard Mund.

The First World War , to which he was drafted because of his artistic talent after being advised by his professor Becker-Gundahl, made him a staunch pacifist .

His early works were created on study trips to Dalmatia and Italy from 1923 to 1925 . Back in Germany, Croissant lived in Berlin from 1925 to 1927 and then in Landau.

His subsequent work produced soulful landscapes , some elegant portraits and still lifes . The latter are located in Pirmasens , Landsberg , Landau (old department store) and Zweibrücken (pheasantry). His frescoes in the wine taverns of the witch baker in Kaiserslautern were destroyed during the war.

On the occasion of his 50th birthday, his hometown organized a special exhibition of his art. On the occasion of his 60th birthday, the city of Landau organized an exhibition of his works from previous years.

Hermann Croissant was married and had a son, Michael Croissant , who lived as a sculptor in Munich.

Association of Palatinate Artists (APK)

In correspondence with Ludwig Waldschmitt , August Croissant and Daniel Wohlgemut , the artists kept coming back to the catastrophic economic situation in the visual arts and the extreme hardship of the 1920s. It was therefore natural to join forces to improve the difficult situation through joint actions and exhibitions. This association of visual artists in 1922 was called Arbeitsgemeinschaft Pfälzer Künstler (APK).

The board of the APK in 1929 included the painter Peter Koch (3rd chairman) and, as assessors, the painter Hermann Croissant, Landau, and the sculptor Theobald Hauck , Oggersheim.

In the first year, the APK organized the Palatinate Art Exhibition in Ludwigshafen (together with the City Council, the office of the South-West German Heat Industry Exhibition and the Association for Fine Arts, Ludwigshafen). In this exhibition the state acquired oil paintings by Hermann Croissant, Albert Haueisen, Otto Dill , Richard Pabsdorf , Hanns Fay , two pastels by Daniel Wohlgemuth , a watercolor by Wilhelm Vorholz , three by Hans Weis and a woodcut by Hermann Müller.

In addition, the APK's self-sufficient exhibition activity enjoyed the influential support of Director Graf and his employees.

Works (selection)

Dated works in chronological order

  • Industrial wasteland, 1917
  • Reclining female nude from the back, 1922
  • Forest in the Palatinate Mountains, 1930
  • Palatinate landscape in spring, 1933
  • Colorful summer bouquet, 1940
  • Poprad near Alt-Sandez (Slovakia), 1943
  • Large amaryllis, 1944
  • Portrait of a woman (in a dark dress), 1944
  • Carnations in a Vase, 1947
  • Hilly meadow landscape, 1949
  • South Palatinate landscape near Landau, 1950
  • Seated female nude in the studio, 1950
  • Landscape near Varzi, 1954
  • View from my studio window, 1955
  • Apples and pears in front of a rubber tree, 1956
  • Wide summer meadow landscape, 1956
  • Herbst am Löhl, 1960
  • Almond Tree, 1960

Undated works

  • Bathers at a lake - guitar players, reclining people
  • View of a summer garden
  • Kneeling female nude (terracotta)
  • Reclining female nude
  • Lakeshore with jetty and boathouse
  • Still life with apples
  • Still life with apples and pears
  • Still life with flowers, bowl and book

literature

  • Wolfgang Diehl: Hermann Croissant. Painter between tradition and modernity. A monograph. Palatinate Publishing House, Landau 1987, ISBN 978-3-87629-120-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Wolfgang Diel: Hermann Croissant, painter between tradition and modernity - a monograph. Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt GmbH, Landau / Pfalz 1987, ISBN 3-87629-120-8 , p. 93 .
  2. ↑ Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Pfälzer Künstler anniversary exhibition 1922-1987 . In: Pfalzergalerie Kaiserslautern, total production by Georg Geringer GmbH, Graphische Kunstanstalt, Kaiserslautern (publisher): June 12 to July 12, 1987 . Pfalzergalerie Kaiserslautern / APK, Kaiserslautern 1987, p. 8th f .
  3. ↑ The artist Hermann CROISSANT. February 26, 2018, accessed February 26, 2018 .
  4. ↑ The Croissant family. In: https://erhard.tesmer.eu/familie_croissant/ . Retrieved March 11, 2018 .
  5. ^ Diel, Wolfgang: Hermann Croissant, painter between tradition and modernity - a monograph. Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt GmbH, Landau / Pfalz 1987, ISBN 3-87629-120-8 .
  6. ^ Munzinger Archive GmbH, Ravensburg: Hermann Croissant. In: https://www.munzinger.de/search/portrait/Hermann+Croissant/0/1407.html . All rights reserved. © Munzinger-Archiv GmbH, Ravensburg, February 26, 2018, accessed on February 26, 2018 .
  7. ↑ By Wolfgang Diehl: On the history of the apk. February 26, 2018, accessed February 26, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Diehl: On the history of the apk. February 26, 2018, accessed February 26, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Diehl: On the history of the apk. In: http://www.apk-kunst.net/1/CMSdk,6/smid,1/startseite.html . February 26, 2018, accessed February 26, 2018 .
  10. ^ Hermann Croissant (German, 1897–1963) on artnet.de (29 image titles with 26 images), accessed on February 26, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Croissant, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Landau
DATE OF DEATH 1963
Place of death Landau