Julius Seyler

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The ice skater and painter Julius Seyler

Julius Seyler (born May 4, 1873 in Munich , † November 22 or November 24, 1955 in Munich) was a German painter and sportsman . His parents were the pharmacist Hugo Seyler (1846–1878) and Elise, née Christoph (* 1853), and Julius' sister Emma (* 1876) also belonged to the family.

Childhood and youth

As a child, Seyler could be found on the sprayer ice rinks and also on the Kleinhesseloher See ice skating, in summer he worked as a rower and sailor on the lakes in the vicinity of Munich, he also devoted himself to landscape painting .

When Seyler's father died in 1878, his mother moved with Julius and his sister from Memmingen to Munich to live with their brother, the bank director and member of the state parliament, Gottfried August Christoph . In the school year 1883/84 Julius entered the Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich , switched to the Alte Realgymnasium in 1888 and left it in 1891. He showed talents with artistic and athletic skills. His uncle determined him to become an officer, but Seyler fled the cadet institute and from 1890 took private painting lessons from Ludwig Schmid-Reutte .

Artistic career

In 1892 Julius Seyler became a student of Wilhelm von Diez at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich , in 1898 he switched to Ludwig von Herterich and in 1900 to Heinrich von Zügel and took, a. a. 1904, took part in his open-air studies in Wörth am Rhein. As early as 1899 he was in Diessen or Fischen am Ammersee, and around 1900 in Dachau.

In 1900 Seyler began painting in the open air . From 1902 he went on study trips to the Netherlands and Belgium , including studies with Anton Mauve and Jacob Maris , to the Atlantic, to Norway , Canada and the USA. In 1903 he moved into an apartment on Lake Ammersee, where he lived and painted until 1912. At that time Seyler had made a name for himself in the art world and was looking for new challenges beyond sports.

Julius Seyler and Black-footed Indian Jack Big Moon in Glacier Park

Seyler stayed in Paris for the first time in 1909. In Munich, the American of Norwegian origin, Helga Boeckmann, became his painting student. He traveled with her to the USA, where the marriage took place on July 30, 1910 in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1912 the couple returned and settled in Munich. In 1913 Julius and Helga Seyler traveled again to the States for the wedding of Helga's brother. During the family visit, the First World War broke out. During and after the war, the couple lived in Balsam Lake , Wisconsin, from 1914 to 1921 . Seyler ran a farm and made friends with black-footed Indians in Montana . Much of his painting then dealt with the Blackfeet and their history.

When Seyler returned to Munich in 1921, he was able to build on his earlier work in Germany. He was a highly productive painter, the Bayerische Staatsgalerie bought his works and the critics cheered. In 1922 the daughter Sigrid Ingeborg was born in Munich; In 1924 Seylers was appointed professor at the Munich Art Academy. Seyler traveled to Paris and southern France for the third time in 1927 ; In 1930/35 he stayed repeatedly on the island of Sylt .

In the early 1940s he slowly began to go blind. The Second World War hit Seyler hard: in a bomb attack in 1943, his studio on Georgenstrasse in Munich was destroyed, and in 1944 300 works fell victim to a bomb attack and water in the Pinakothek . Seyler himself survived the war in Hirschau am Chiemsee . After his return to Munich in 1946, Seyler was hardly productive anymore due to his weak eyesight. When he died in 1955, Otto Dix made the death mask.

plant

Apart from his Munich teachers, Seyler has been influenced by Impressionism and the Barbizon School since 1909 . He quickly rose to become the first guard of modern German painting and was mentioned in the same breath as Max Liebermann and Max Slevogt .

While the early work still shows muted colors and calligraphic structures, Seyler's later work is characterized by stronger colors and generous brushwork. He painted landscapes (Chiemsee, Bavaria, Norwegian Fjords, Montana), some with scenes from working life ( lumberjacks , farmers, fishermen) and still lifes , later also nudes and mythological scenes (“ Leda ”). The years in the USA made Bavaria paint Indians and cowboys again and again. Images like “Two Guns White Calf rides across the prairie” made him famous in his adopted home.

Nevertheless, the "Munich Impressionist" Julius Seyler is no longer ranked in the first guard of the German Impressionists today, probably wrongly, and does not experience the esteem of a Max on the art market - despite or perhaps because of a strong presence especially in the southern German market Slevogt or even Max Liebermann. Even during his lifetime, a tribute to Seyler regrets the contradiction between achievement and recognition. Anyone looking for explanations for this may find them in Seyler's preferred subjects on the one hand, and a painting style that is characteristic of him on the other. Among the former, apart from the nudes (nudes in the open air) and the Indian scenes owed to a particular life situation, the crab or mussel fishermen on the beach, often with horses, and the horse or ox carts dominate in frequent repetition Fields or country roads as well as horses and cattle in other variants. And from a stylistic point of view, an atmospheric, but subdued, almost monochrome color scheme, tinged between medium brown, sandy yellow and matt gray with sprinkles of faint green and blue, and a coarse brush stroke that largely dissolves the form, sometimes almost beyond recognition, are typical. This is impressionistic in the best sense of the word, but it is not as appealing as Liebermann's blooming garden splendor. If a picture falls out of this framework, like the early Lofoten landscape with sailing ships auctioned at Ketterer in 2016, it is immediately rewarded. But before it neglects Seyler unduly, the art scene should not only remember such landscapes, but also his masterly still lifes with flowers and expressive portraits.

Important exhibitions

  • 1898: 2 study heads (Munich annual exhibition in the Glaspalast 1898, catalog nos. 1450 and 1451)
  • 1902 in the Glaspalast Munich (award: small medal), more in the years 1905 ( Durch den Wald , catalog no. 1162), 1908, 1909 ( Herbstlandschaft / The black cattle : Official catalog of the Munich annual exhibition 1909 in the Glaspalast, no.1442 / 1442a), 1913 ( Motif from Quimper, Bretagne / Fischerboote in der Bretagne (catalog picture) / Motif from Bretagne : Illustrated catalog of the XI.International Art Exhibition in the Royal Glass Palace in Munich 1913, June 1st to the end of October, Munich 1913, No. 2953-55), 1921 ( Tang workers at Grand Sables / View of Concarneau / Bretonischer Fischerhafen / Breton Fisherwoman / In the port of Moss : Munich Art Exhibition, Glaspalast 1921 (Secession), No. 2418-22), 1922 ( Still life with lilies / evening on the Laita, Bretagne / Grand Sable, Bretagne / fishing port, Bretagne / storm on the coast, Bretagne / Bretonischer Karren / Breton coast (catalog picture): Munich art exhibition 1922, Glaspalast (Secession), no. 2595-2601 ), 1923 ( The old fortress; Brittany / The Wave; Brittany / View of the Laita; Brittany / The fishing boat / In the dunes : Munich Art Exhibition 1923, Glaspalast (Secession), No. 2297–2301), 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931
  • October 19 to 25, 1906: “Collection” at the Münchner Kunstverein
  • 1912 exhibitions in Dresden , Leipzig and Rotterdam
  • 1913 The Armory Show in New York (European Impressionists )
  • 1914 Minnesoty Art Society
  • 1922 Galerie Helbig Munich
  • 1923 Art Association Munich
  • 1925 Galerie Thannhauser, Lucerne (Switzerland)
  • 1928 German contemporary art, Nuremberg
  • 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943 Maximilianeum , Munich
  • 1947 Munich Secession, Municipal Gallery Munich (J Seyler, Hirschau am Chiemsee)
  • 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956 House of German Art, Munich
  • 1987 CM Russel Museum, Great Falls (Montana)
  • 1989 America House, Munich
  • 1994 Gallery of the Visible Arts, University of Montana, Missoula, USA
  • 1999 Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, USA and in the German-American Institute, Heidelberg
  • 2003 (January 16 - March 9) retrospective in the gallery of the Bayerische Landesbank in Munich
  • 2015 (from November 13th) colors. Art. Indians. The Munich impressionist Julius Seyler at the Blackfeet in the Museum Fünf Continenten in Munich

student

Athletic career

Julius Seyler Speed ​​skating
nation GermanyGermany Germany
birthday May 4, 1873
place of birth Munich, Germany
date of death November 22 or 24, 1955
Place of death Munich, Germany
Career
End of career 1908
Medal table
World Cup medals 0 × gold 1 × silver 0 × bronze
EM medals 2 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
DM medals 1 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
Template: medals_winter sports / maintenance / unrecognized
 

In sport, Julius Seyler achieved national success for the first time at the age of 17 at the German speed skating championships on Lake Kleinhesseloher. There he won the bronze medal. He then dominated the German speed skating scene for eight years and was one of the world's best runners at the time.

Seyler's running style included lively arm movements, which at the time - you were constantly running with your hands on your back - was ridiculed as unorthodox. Nonetheless, Seyler continued to refine his running style in this direction. Contemporaries also attested that he had “a perfect cornering technique that no runner had ever shown before or later”.

At the European speed skating championship in Hamburg in 1896 , Julius Seyler won a gold medal for Germany for the first time with victories on all four routes and repeated this at the European Championships in Amsterdam in 1897 . It was only 63 years later that a German speed skater managed to win a gold medal. At the World Championships in Davos in 1898 , Seyler won the silver medal behind the strong Norwegian Peder Østlund .

Seyler achieved further sporting successes in 1895 with the Kaiser Prize in rowing (team of four) and winning the international sailing regatta in 1898 on the Ammersee .

Seyler's best times in speed skating lasted for a long time, among other things, his time over 10,000 meters (18: 05.0 minutes) was not beaten by any other German for 38 years. In 1899 after again good performances at European Championships and World Cups, a long break in sport followed.

In 1906 Seyler achieved a comeback with victories over 500 and 1500 meters at the German Championships in Munich, although he could do without a start over 5000 meters, since he was already the champion according to the rules of the time. On January 26, 1908, he was also registered for a competition in Berlin , but it is not known whether he actually competed there.

When he died on November 24, 1955, his 57-year-old best times on all routes were still among the five best times ever achieved in Germany.

literature

  • Seyler, Julius . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 30 : Scheffel – Siemerding . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1936, p. 554 .
  • Seyler, Julius . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 4 : Q-U . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1958.
  • Bruckmann's Lexicon of Munich Art. Munich painter in the 19th century. Volume 6, Munich 1994.
  • Karl Schloß : Young Munich painters. In: March. Half-monthly publication for German culture. Founded by Albert Langen, ed. by Ludwig Thoma, Hermann Hesse a. a., 3rd volume, Munich 1909, pp. 34-38.
  • Heinrich Werner: Julius Seyler. In: Westermannsmonthshefte. Special print, vol. 70, September 1925 to August 1926, pp. 173–186.
  • Peter Breuer: Julius Seyler. 1926 (with Seyler's portrait caricature by Ludwig Eckl).
  • Eugen Diem: Julius Seyler. Letters and Pictures. Munich 1928.
  • Julius Seyler. With an introduction by Bruno Kroll. Rembrandt-Verlag, Berlin 1940.
  • Hermann Reiner: Munich Impressionists of the Twenties. Publisher H. Reiner, Babenhausen 1981.
  • Siegfried Wichmann : Julius Seyler - Newly Discovered Works. 1988.
  • William E. Farr: The West of Julius Seyler. 1998.
  • Sigrid Reisch: Julius-Seyler - A Munich Impressionist. Private print, Kitzbühel 2003.
  • William E. Farr: Julius Seyler and the Blackfeet: An Impressionist at Glacier National Park. University of Oklahoma, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8061-4014-8 .
  • Siegfried Weiß : Art career aspiration. Painter, graphic artist, sculptor. Former students of Munich's Maximiliansgymnasium from 1849 to 1918. Allitera Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86906-475-8 , pp. 319, 457-463 (ill.), 476, 491.
  • Stefan Eisenhofer: Colors. Art. Indians. The Munich impressionist Julius Seyler at the Blackfeet. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich-Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-422-07342-5 .

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Annual report on the K. Maximilians-Gymnasium in Munich for the school year 1888/89
  2. ^ Matriculation of the old secondary school 1888/89 to 1890/91: Oskar von Miller grammar school, archive
  3. ↑ * May 29, 1879 in Bergen / Norway; Daughter of Dr. Eduard Bøckmann (Toten, Norway 1849-1927 White Bear Lake, Minnesota, USA); since 1887 surgeon at the Norwegian Lutheran Hospital in St. Paul .
  4. ↑ On artnet alone, there are records of over 1000 works that came onto the market in the last two decades: [1]
  5. ↑ The Pinakothek's collection currently has 9 pictures by Julius Seyler: [2] , accessed on May 1, 2020.
  6. ↑ This is the stereotype in the relevant literature, see the monographs by Eisenhofer, Reiner and Reisch with the same title.
  7. ↑ Der deutsche Impressionismus (Ed. Jutta Hülsewig-Johnen, Thomas Kellein), a publication accompanying the representative exhibition in Bielefeld 2009/10, includes 33 other artists in addition to the two aforementioned, not including Julius Seyler, although the recording period up to the 1930s Years, p. 9.
  8. ↑ Bruno Kroll: Julius Seyler . Rembrandt-Verlag, Berlin 1940, p. 7 (introduction).
  9. ↑ kettererkunst.de Julius Seyler, No. 1.
personal data
SURNAME Seyler, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and sportsman
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1955 or November 24, 1955
Place of death Munich