Karl Walser

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Karl Walser, around 1897

Karl Walser (born April 8, 1877 in Biel / Bienne ; † September 28, 1943 in Bern ) was a Swiss painter , set designer and illustrator . His work was initially strongly oriented towards symbolism , later it developed - in the spirit of the zeitgeist - towards a heroic worship of the body. His art, which earned him great recognition during his lifetime, let him fall into oblivion after his death, in stark contrast to his brother Robert Walser , whose reception developed in reverse.

life and work

Karl Walser, one of the older brothers of the writer Robert Walser, started an (incomplete) apprenticeship as a draftsman . From 1894 to 1896 Walser did an apprenticeship as a decorative painter with August Kämmerer in Stuttgart and attended the art school here . A scholarship enabled Walser to continue his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Strasbourg . In 1898 he met Marcus Behmer , with whom he had a lifelong friendship. Both adored the works of Aubrey Beardsley . In the same year Walser worked for three months in Munich for the decorative painter Adolf Lentner . Walser then decided to pursue an independent career as an artist in Berlin and from 1901 worked as a set and book designer for the Bruno Cassirer publishing house . In Berlin he became a member of the Berlin Secession and made friends with its director Max Liebermann . Further friendships arose with Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt . Walser's breakthrough came with his portrayals of Salome at the 1902 exhibition of drawing arts .

Berlin memorial plaque in Berlin-Charlottenburg
Karl Walser
Karl Walser

From 1903 he worked as a set designer a. a. for the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm together with Max Reinhardt and began to illustrate books by his brother Robert. At that time, the two brothers shared a studio apartment in Berlin-Charlottenburg . In 1910, Karl Walser married Hedwig Agnes Czarnetzki (1885–1987), who came from East Prussia. From 1911 he made wall paintings a . a. in the Villa Gans (Königstein) for Hugo Cassirer and Walther Rathenau as well as for the newly built Palais by Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy , where he painted the stairwell with frescoes. A patron financed a trip to Japan for him . In collaboration with Bernhard Kellermann , this resulted in the volume Japanese Dances (1911), which Karl Walser illustrated. From 1917 he lived again in Switzerland, where he worked on frescoes and etchings (e.g. in the House of Patience in Winterthur ). In the following years he continued to work for the theater. In 1921 he returned to Berlin and became a board member of the Free Secession . Karl Walser was also a member of the German Association of Artists

From 1925 onwards, Walser and his wife lived mainly in Twann on Lake Biel . In 1927 he became a member of the Prussian Academy of the Arts . In the following years he took part in numerous exhibitions and made a number of wall paintings, u. a. for the Amtshaus in Zurich , the entrance area of ​​the Kunst Museum Winterthur - Reinhart am Stadtgarten . For the Muraltengut acquired by Martin Bodmer in 1924 , Walser was able to produce various wall paintings. In the Forster house of Gustav Adolf Tobler, professor of applied electricity at the ETH, Walser painted the dining room from 1930 to 1931. In 1941, Walser completed the first two pictures in the music and dance cycle for the Bern City Theater . In 1942 he was commissioned to paint a wall in the Grand Council Chamber in Bern's town hall, which he created in just two months. In 1943 Walser began work on the third mural Tragedy for the Bern City Theater. During this time, Walser fell seriously ill and had to go to the Salem hospital for care . When he got better, he went to the theater to continue working. After completing the mural, Walser returned to his home in Glion . In the autumn of 1943, Karl Walser succumbed to a heart condition. He was buried in the Schosshaldenfriedhof in Bern. Adolf Tièche held the obituary for Walser .

From 1905 to 1943 Walser created no fewer than 32 murals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. From 1933 to 1937 he designed the dust jackets for the collected works of Thomas Mann at S. Fischer Verlag . His relationship with brother Robert was increasingly strained. With his older brother, Professor of Human Geography Hermann Walser , he was reluctant to pay for the penniless writer's long hospital stay, whom he hardly took seriously as an artist.

Large parts of his early work in particular are considered lost. The NMB Neues Museum Biel shows some of his best-known early works in the permanent exhibition.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Verena Senti-Schmidlin: Karl Walser and Marcus Behmer. Retrieved October 27, 2019 .
  2. ^ Bernard Kellermann, illustrated by Karl Walser: Sassa yo yassa - Japanese dances . 4th edition. Paul Cassirer Verlag, Berlin 1922.
  3. ↑ Zürcher Illustrierte, 1933: Walser in Winterhur. Retrieved October 30, 2019 .
  4. ^ German Association of Artists: Karl Walser. Retrieved October 27, 2019 .
  5. ↑ s. Walser, Karl . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 35 : Libra-Wilhelmson . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1942, p. 108-109 .
  6. ^ Doris Wild, Architecture and Art, 1934: Wall pictures, Muraltengut. Retrieved October 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Doris Wild, Architecture and Art, 1934: Forster House, wall pictures for the dining room. Retrieved October 27, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Open House Zurich: mural by Karl Walser. Retrieved October 27, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Robert Savary (contributor 48881410): Karl Walser. In: Find a Grave. November 23, 2018, accessed May 9, 2016 .
  10. ^ Adolf Tièche: Obituary for Walser. Retrieved October 27, 2019 .
  11. ^ Peter Müller-Grieshaber: Walser, Hermann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland. December 27, 2014, accessed April 25, 2019 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl Walser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Walser, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter, set designer and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Biel / Bienne
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 1943
Place of death Bern