Jean Paul Schmitz

Jean Paul Schmitz (born March 4, 1899 in Wesseling near Cologne , † June 13, 1970 in Singen (Hohentwiel) ) was a German painter , draftsman and graphic artist .

life and work

Jean Paul Schmitz was the fourth of six children. He experienced his childhood and early youth at home in Düren . The parents want him to become a priest and for this reason send him to the Collegium Josephinum , which at that time was still in Vaals in the Netherlands, right on the border with Germany. Since the boy cannot cope with the rigor and authority of the college, his parents will soon pick him up again. He completed secondary school and attended the teachers' seminar in Düren from 1916.

In 1917 Schmitz registered as a war volunteer. He witnessed the war with an artillery unit on the western front. In 1918 he was wounded in Flanders and was taken prisoner of war by the English, from which he was released in 1919. During this time he decided to become an artist. After his release, he begins 1920 self-taught to paint. In order to secure his livelihood he works as a night watchman and miner.

In 1921 he went to Munich with his friend Richard Maintz and attended Moritz Heymann's private painting school . He stayed there until 1922. From 1923 to 1926 he studied with Heinrich Nauen at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . Most recently, Schmitz was a master student in Nauen. He joins the “ Junge Rheinland ” and participates in exhibitions. "Although Schmitz's exhibitions bring occasional sales and portrait commissions, and although Düsseldorf grants him the city's artist aid, since his parents do not support him financially, he can often only continue his studies under the most difficult of conditions."

Schmitz belongs to the circle of artists around Johanna Ey and has close contact with other artists such as Bruno Goller , Peter Janssen , Otto Dix , Ferdinand Macketanz , Carl Weisgerber . In 1927 Johanna Ey and Schmitz travel to Mallorca with Gert Heinrich Wollheim and the pianist Willy Werth . As a result, he withdrew more from "Mother Ey", but a lifelong correspondence between the two continued. Schmitz stayed in Paris from mid-April to the end of May 1930 . During these weeks he met with various artist colleagues, including u. a. Karli Sohn-Rethel , Ernst Schumacher , Peter Janssen, Max Clarenbach . In 1931 he was again in Paris from the end of March to mid-April. This time together with the painter and sports and drawing teacher Ilse Pieper , his future wife. In March 1934 Jean Paul Schmitz and Ilse Pieper married, who, like him, also studied at the Düsseldorf Academy. The couple go on a six-month trip to Rome and Ischia . In October 1934 Schmitz and his wife moved from Düsseldorf to Berlin. Like other artists, for example Curth Georg Becker , Rudolf Heinisch , Ernst Alfred Mühler , he hoped for the opportunity to practice art more freely there. He made contact with Karl Buchholz , who from then on supported him and exhibited his works.

In 1936 Schmitz received the Rome Prize from the Prussian Academy of the Arts . The associated scholarship enables him to stay at Villa Massimo for a year . During this time he also participates in the Biennale in Venice in part.

In May 1937 Schmitz went on a two-week study trip to Greece with the director of Villa Massimo, Herbert Gericke . From June 1937 to June 1938 he received a scholarship from the Prussian Academy of the Arts for the Villa Serpentara in Olevano . During this time he went on a trip through Sicily in April 1938 .

In 1937 a total of seven works by Schmitz were confiscated from public museum collections as part of the Degenerate Art campaign . A watercolor from the art collections of the city of Düsseldorf, a graphic from the municipal art collections of Gelsenkirchen , as well as four prints and a drawing from the holdings of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne. In addition, two paintings from the Berlin National Gallery will be suspended or removed. Since these were not owned by the museum at the time, but belonged to the artist, both objects will be returned to Schmitz and will not be confiscated.

In July 1938 Schmitz returned to Berlin with his wife. Due to the increasingly worsening political and cultural-political situation, Schmitz tried again to study abroad. In August 1939, the couple traveled to Greece by car and were surprised by the outbreak of war in Yugoslavia. Schmitz was given permission to continue his journey, followed by stays in Athens, Olympia, Delphi, Nauplia and the Peloponnese. During the artist's study trip in October and November 1939, Karl Buchholz organized a large exhibition of works by Schmitz and Milly Steger in his Berlin gallery, which was remarkable due to its modern orientation .

In June 1940 the couple returned to Berlin due to the further course of the war. Jean Paul and Ilse Schmitz decide to move to southern Germany on the Höri on Lake Constance . Other artists and cultural workers, with whom Schmitz was sometimes already known and friends, had already withdrawn there. Initially, the couple did not find any accommodation on Lake Constance, so they moved to Wieladingen in December 1940 and from there to Schwörstadt in September 1943 . In 1942 Schmitz undertook a bike tour to Lake Constance and visited a. a. Walter Kaesbach , Otto Dix, Ferdinand Macketanz. Through the mediation of Kaesbach, the family of the sculptor Hans Kindermann found accommodation with Schmitz, as their house was destroyed by a bomb attack. In the same year Kaesbach made a return visit to Wieladingen.

In 1942 Schmitz was drafted into the customs border guard and deployed in Alsace .

The daughter Beate was born on May 5, 1943 in Säckingen .

In 1945 a large part of the Buchholz gallery was destroyed in an attack on Berlin. This included most of the works from the Berlin period, as well as works from the trips to Italy and Greece.

The von Schmitz unit withdrew from Alsace to the southern Black Forest at the end of 1944. At the end of April 1945, the unit disbanded. Schmitz made his way for several days on foot from Blumberg to Schwörstadt, where the family lived in some rooms of the castle .

The son Wieland was born on March 8, 1946 in Säckingen .

In November 1949 the family can finally move to Lake Constance. You live in the house of the former local kindergarten in Wangen . Schmitz now comes together with numerous old friends and acquaintances and this group soon becomes known as the Höri painter .

In the years that followed, it was above all the Lake Constance landscape that attracted Schmitz as a motif. Independent views emerge in a subdued expressively realistic expression. Schmitz also takes on portraits and draws illustrations etc. a. for the south courier . Exhibition activities are increasing and Schmitz is particularly regularly represented at exhibitions in the Lake Constance region and in Düsseldorf. Schmitz travels to South Tyrol, Flanders and Burgundy.

In 1956 Schmitz built a house with a studio in Wangen. He hires Wolfgang Meisenheimer , who is the son of a childhood friend of Schmitz and who built one of his first houses here, as the architect .

At the end of 1957, Schmitz developed the technique of lithography, and a correspondence with Max Peiffer Watenphul helped him a lot. He receives further suggestions from Erich Heckel and Otto Dix. He buys his own printing press and usually prints his graphics himself. “You can understand playing with the painterly possibilities of this technique as a kind of reassurance against non-representational art, through whose onslaught and assertion in the art world Schmitz is able to deal with his artistic existence increasingly called into question. "

In 1961, Schmitz took part as a guest in the highly regarded exhibition of the Oberschwaben-Bodensee (SOB) secession in Tübingen. As a result, he repeatedly participated in their exhibitions and finally became a member in 1967.

In 1963 and 1964 Schmitz gave painting and drawing lessons at the Volkshochschule Singen.

In the last years of his life, Schmitz mainly painted in the house. Oil paintings and watercolors are created. He “turns increasingly to the topic of the snowy winter landscape. [...] The winter pictures are among the best that Schmitz has created ”. On June 13, 1970 Schmitz died of cancer in the Singen hospital. The funeral speech is given by his friend and artist colleague Hans Sauerbruch . The grave is in the cemetery in Wangen.

The focus within the work of Jean Paul Schmitz is clearly on landscape painting and in particular on the motifs on Lake Constance. “The name of the painter [...] still has a good ring to it in the Lake Constance area. With his material, fragrant, summerly glowing landscapes - preferring views of the Wangen Bay, the Untersee and across to the Swiss bank, towards Mammern - Jean Paul Schmitz has strongly shaped the collective image of the Höri peninsula as a bright 'place in the south'. "

Memberships

• From around 1925 Schmitz was a member of the artists' association Das Junge Rheinland .
• Schmitz was a member of the Rhenish Secession until April 1930 .
• After leaving the Rhenish secession, he becomes a member of the Rhine group .
• Around 1934 Schmitz became a member of the Berlin Secession .
• 1947 member of the Baden Secession .
• In 1955 he joined the Artists' Association of Baden-Württemberg .
• 1962 co-founder of the Konstanz artist group Der kleine Kreis .
• In 1967 he joined the Oberschwaben-Bodensee secession.
• Kunstverein Konstanz .
• Association of South Baden visual artists .
• New Munich artists' cooperative .

Solo exhibitions

• 1932, Bochum, Städtische Gemäldegalerie (together with Jean Baptist Hermann Hundt , Ulrich Leman, Robert Pudlich)
• 1939, Berlin, Buchholz Gallery (together with Milly Steger)
• July 1949, Säckingen, Schönau Castle (together with works by his wife)
• October 1949, Rheinfelden
• November – December 1949, Konstanz, Wessenberghaus
• 1960 and 1961, Konstanz, Konstanzer Bucherschiff
• 1962, Frauenfeld , Galerie Gampiross
• 1962, Constance, friends of contemporary art
• 1965, Bad Krozingen
• 1966, Singen, Association of Art Friends
• 1969 and 1972, Konstanz, Galerie Stuckert
• 1971, Singen, Förg art dealer
• 1974, Stein am Rhein , Galerie zum Roebock
• 1978 Singing, City Hall
• 1980, Singen, Galerie Kunsthäusle
• 1980, Radolfzell , town hall
• 1985, Tübingen , Gottschick Gallery
• 1989, Konstanz, Kunstverein Konstanz
• 1989, Öhningen-Wangen, Fischerhaus Museum
• 1995, Singen, Förg art dealer
• 1997, Gaienhofen, Hesse-Museum-Gaienhofen
• December 2002 - January 2003, Radolfzell, Villa Bosch
• 2017, singing, art museum

Works

Works by Jean Paul Schmitz are in private and public collections. The Augustinermuseum in Freiburg i.Br., the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf , the Kunstmuseum Singen, the Südwestdeutsche Kunststiftung in Singen, the city of Singen, the Bavarian State Painting Collections, the Hermann-Hesse-Museum Gaienhofen, the art collection of the Lake Constance district, the municipal Böblingen Gallery (Bleicher Collection), the Museum of the University of Tübingen ( Rieth Collection ), and the Art Foundation of the District of Constance .

estate

The artistic estate of Jean Paul Schmitz is looked after and looked after by the family. The written estate can be found in the Rhenish Archives for artists' bequests .

Illustrations

• In 1949 Schmitz illustrated the "Epistles" by Victor von Scheffel . However, the project will not be implemented due to technical publishing reasons.
• In 1952 Schmitz drew the illustrations for the volume "Mit Harpune und Dynamit" by Werner Helwig , which was published by Diederichs Verlag in Düsseldorf.
• From 1961 to 1970 drawings by Schmitz appear in the “Südkurier”.

literature

• Christoph Bauer (Ed.): Jean Paul Schmitz (1899–1970). A Rhenish expressionist on Lake Constance, Singen 2017
• André Ficus (Ed.): SOB Secession Oberschwaben Bodensee. Painter and sculptor in a landscape 1947–1977, Friedrichshafen 1977, pp. 70, 79, 83
• Andrea Hofmann: Artists on the Höri. Refuge on Lake Constance in the first half of the twentieth century, Konstanz 1989, pp. 120–122, 164
• Monika Spiller: Jean Paul Schmitz, in: “General Artist Lexicon” (AKL), online version, artist ID: 00224143
• Leopold Zahn : Artists on the Höri am Bodensee, Simon and Koch, Konstanz 1956, pp. 42–47
• Rainer Zimmermann : Expressive realism. Painting of the Lost Generation, Hirmer, Munich 1994, p. 440
• Kunstverein Konstanz (ed.): Jean Paul Schmitz 1899–1970, Stadler, Konstanz 1989

Web links

• Website about the artist
• Literature by and about Jean Paul Schmitz in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Marie-Theres Scheffczyk: Jean Paul Schmitz. Consideration of artist and work, in: Kunstverein Konstanz (Ed.) (1989): Jean Paul Schmitz 1899–1970, Stadler, Konstanz, pp. 5–21 [here: 5].
2. ^ Marie-Theres Scheffczyk: Jean Paul Schmitz. Consideration of artist and work, in: Kunstverein Konstanz (Ed.) (1989): Jean Paul Schmitz 1899–1970, Stadler, Konstanz, pp. 5–21 [here: 8].
3. ^ Cf. Marie-Theres Scheffczyk: Jean Paul Schmitz. Consideration of artist and work, in: Kunstverein Konstanz (Ed.) (1989): Jean Paul Schmitz 1899–1970, Stadler, Konstanz, pp. 5–21 [here: 8].
4. ↑ Cf. on this Rainer Zimmermann (1980): The Art of the Lost Generation. German expressive realism painting from 1925 to 1975, Econ, Düsseldorf-Wien, pp. 142, 146.
5. ↑ See the list sent by the Nationalgalerie to Franz Roh on his request in: Franz Roh (1962): “Degenerate” Art. Art barbarism in the Third Reich, Torchbearers, Hanover, p. 143.
6. ↑ See on this Kunstverein Konstanz (ed.) (1989): Jean Paul Schmitz 1899–1970, Stadler, Konstanz, pp. 12, 23.
7. ↑ Christoph Bauer (ed.) (2007): Jean Paul Schmitz (1899–1970). A Rhenish expressionist on Lake Constance, Singen, p. 8.
8. ↑ Gisela Lindner (1977): Group picture of a regional artists' association, in: André Ficus (Hrsg.): SOB Sezession Oberschwaben Bodensee. Painter and sculptor in a landscape 1947–1977, Friedrichshafen, pp. 76–132 [here: 79, 83].
9. ^ Marie-Theres Scheffczyk: Jean Paul Schmitz. Consideration of artist and work, in: Kunstverein Konstanz (Ed.) (1989): Jean Paul Schmitz 1899–1970, Stadler, Konstanz, pp. 5–21 [here: 20].
10. ↑ Sauerbruch also wrote the very nice "Memories of a Friend", which can be found in: Kunstverein Konstanz (Ed.) (1989): Jean Paul Schmitz 1899–1970, Stadler, Konstanz, pp. 89–90.
11. ↑ In this connection Andrea Hofmann says: "If the portrayal of people was originally important to him [ie Jean Paul Schmitz], then in the course of the 1950s the landscape came to the fore, which soon occupied him exclusively. The popularization, the the landscape of the Untersee won, is reflected in his pictures. The harmony of this (holiday) landscape becomes the motif of his virtuoso designed Lake Constance pictures "(Andrea Hofmann: Artists on the Höri. Refuge on Lake Constance in the first half of the twentieth century, Konstanz 1989, p. 120).
12. ↑ Christoph Bauer (ed.) (2007): Jean Paul Schmitz (1899–1970). A Rhenish Expressionist on Lake Constance, Singen, p. 3.
13. ↑ http://www.rak-bonn.de/text/bestaende.htm [accessed on April 9, 2019].