Karl Stratil

Karl Stratil (born July 11, 1894 in Olomouc , Moravia , Austria-Hungary ; † February 5, 1963 in Leipzig , Saxony ) was a German artist. In Prague he worked under the name Karel Stratil .

Childhood and youth

Stratil was born the third of eight children to a pipe foreman of the gas and water works. Stratil's artistic talent was already noticed by his teacher Ignaz Neunteufel at the secondary school. However, he was not allowed to study any artistic direction. Instead, he was able to study at the Technical University in Vienna to become an architect. There, however, he was not seen in the lectures, but almost exclusively in the premises of the art academy , especially in its act hall.

Life

When the First World War broke out, he became a soldier of the Austro- Hungarian Common Army in the Olomouc house regiment IR No. 54. During or after the Brusilov offensive he was taken prisoner by Russia in 1916. As a division painter on the staff of the Czechoslovak Legions , he returned in 1920 from Siberia via Mongolia to Olomouc, which was now called Olomouc.

In the same year he reoriented himself, moved to Leipzig and began studying there on October 18 at the State Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Trade with Alois Kolb , the head of the etching workshop , and with Hans Alexander Müller (woodcuts). This was financed by Stratil's younger brother Franz, who as a bank clerk had a relatively secure income.

He quickly devoted himself to book illustration. His collaboration with Philipp Ernst Reclam began as early as 1920, but was particularly noticeable in the 1930s, when, for example, he illustrated a work by Martin Luserke for the Leipzig publishing house Gustav Weise . Portraits of Dante or a red chalk image of Cosima Wagner were created for her biography. Stratil's woodcuts became very popular, for example his portraits of Bach , Beethoven , Engels , Goethe , Marx , Mozart , Pestalozzi , Schiller .

At times he lived and worked in Prague in the 1920s and 1930s. He designed woodcuts and illustrations for numerous printed works and book covers, but in particular for the Reclam publishing house , on which he had great influence. In 1945, for example, he was responsible for designing the publisher's stand. Immediately after the Second World War , he and Philipp Ernst Reclam, whom he also portrayed, planned a collection of portraits of great men and women , which he realized before the publishing house was licensed. It was extremely successful and comprised a total of 52 woodcuts by 1951. In 1953 the series was discontinued unfinished against the background of personnel and political upheavals. In 2012, the portrait collection was exhibited and commented on in its entirety for the first time. Finds by Karl Stratil can be found in the German Museum of Books and Writing in Leipzig.

Works (excerpt)

• The memoirs of Fanny Hill John Cleland , Vienna 1925
• Book illustrations on Heinrich Schulte-Altenroxel : I was looking for land in Africa , EA Seemann Verlag , Leipzig 1942
• Franz Schubert , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1948
• Georg Friedrich Handel , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1948
• Johann Sebastian Bach , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1948
• Joseph Haydn , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1948
• Ludowig van Beethoven , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1948
• Peter Ilyich Tschikowskij , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1948
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1948
• Alexander Sergejewitsch Pushkin , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1949
• Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1949
• The young Goethe , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1949
• Gottfried Keller , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1949
• Max Planck , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1949
• Ersamus of Rotterdam , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1950
• Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy , line etching, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1950
• Johann Gutenberg , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1950
• Johann Sebastian Bach , lead cut, graphics publisher, Weimar 1950
• Johannes Brahms , line etching, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1950
• Maxim Gorki , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1950
• Otto Grotewohl , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1950
• Wilhelm Pieck , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1950
• Richard Wagner , line etching, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1950
• Wilhelm von Humboldt , woodcut, Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1950
• Baltic Sea Pictures - Man and the Landscape , Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin (East) 1953
• Anton Bruckner , woodcut, VEB Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house, Leipzig 1954

literature

• Werner Teupser: Karl Stratil , Archive for Book Trade and Commercial Graphics, Leipzig, German Book Trade Association (ed.), February / March 1927.
• Hans Bockwitz: Young German Buchkunstler , Archive for Book Trade and Commercial Graphics, Leipzig, German Book Trade Association (ed.), November 1934, pp. 699–784.
• Walter Hofmann: Minute graphic art about New Year (New Year cards), Archive for Book Trade and Commercial Graphics, Leipzig, German Book Trade Association (ed.), January 1938, pp. 19-22.
• Rudolf Linke: The book artist Karl Stratil , Archive for Book Trade and Commercial Graphics, Leipzig, Deutscher Buchgewerbeverein (Ed.), May 1938.
• Barbara Hornberger: On the island of fantasy. On the 101st birthday of the artist Karl Stratil , Illustration 63, April 1995, pp. 5–9.
• Carmen Laux: A portrait collection by Karl Stratil , in: Flachware: Fußschriften der Leipziger Buchwissenschaft 2 (2011/2012) (= art papers at Reclam), Verlag Philipp Reclam Junior, Leipzig 2012. pp. 25–37.
• Carmen Laux: Our esteemed master of the pen , in: Ingrid Sonntag: At the limits of the possible. Reclam-Leipzig 1945–1991. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2016. ISBN 978-3861539315 , pp. 334ff.

Exhibitions

• Gohliser Schlösschen (Bach Archive), Leipzig 1940
• Museum of Fine Arts , Leipzig, 1954
• German Library , Leipzig 1964
• Recovered - woodcuts by Karl Stratil in the Leipzig Reclam Verlag , Haus des Buches, Leipzig 2012

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1958 is also mentioned in various sources as the year of death
2. ↑ Stratil, Karel , on: nkp.cz , accessed on October 1, 2017.
3. ↑ Stratil, Carl; Stratil, Karel; Stratil, Karl , from: isni.org , accessed October 1, 2017.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Julia Blume: Karl Stratil's portrait gallery . Blackboard text for the exhibition Recovered. Woodcuts by Karl Stratil published by Reclam Verlag in Leipzig . House of Books, Leipzig 2012.
5. ^ Xaver Schaffer: The Sudeten German painter and graphic artist Karl Stratil - 50 years , in: Sudetendeutsche daily newspaper, July 11, 1944.
6. ↑ Werner Teupser: Karl Stratil , Archive for Book Trade and Commercial Graphics (= German book artists and commercial graphic artists of the present), Deutscher Buchgewerbeverein (publisher), Leipzig, February / March 1927, p. 10.
7. ^ Maria Straub (daughter of Karl Stratil), Stuttgart, information from April 2012.
8. ↑ Martin Luserke: The little Schühß and other stories. A book from the wadden coast . With illustrations v. Karl Stratil. Gustav Weise Verlag, Leipzig / Berlin 1935. (New edition: ISBN 978-3-7822-0186-5 )
9. ↑ Max von Millenkovich-Morold: Cosima Wagner. A picture of life , Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1937.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Carmen Laux: Our esteemed master of the pen , in: Ingrid Sonntag: At the limits of the possible. Reclam-Leipzig 1945–1991. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2016. ISBN 978-3861539315 , pp. 334ff.
11. ↑ Karl Stratil / Karel Stratil , on: germandesigners.net , accessed on October 1, 2017.
12. ↑ The Reclam Story , in: Leipziger Volkszeitung, February 22, 2017, on: lvz.de , accessed on October 1, 2017.
13. ↑ Sample show Leipzig products, October 18-23 , 1945 , at: uni-leipzig.de , accessed on October 1, 2017.
14. ^ Ernst Reclam , portrait (charcoal drawing) by Karl Stratil from 1948, on: bpb.de , accessed on October 1, 2017.
15. ↑ Literaturhaus Leipzig: Recovered - Woodcuts by Karl Stratil published by Reclam Verlag in Leipzig , May 8 to June 29, 2012.
16. ↑ "Found again": Exhibition opening in the House of Books. Karl Stratil's portrait collection at Reclam Verlag in Leipzig , from: uni-leipzig.de , accessed on October 1, 2017.