Leonard of Matt

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Leonard von Matt (born March 14, 1909 in Stans , Canton Nidwalden , † November 12, 1988 in Wolfenschiessen ) was a Swiss photographer .

Life

Leonard von Matt was born in Stans as the youngest of four sons of the politician Hans von Matt . He is the brother of the artist Hans von Matt . After leaving the Engelberg collegiate school , his parents sent him to Bulle , where he attended secondary school and then to Estavayer-le-Lac to learn French. In 1926 he returned to Stans and began an apprenticeship as a bookseller in the family's own bookstore. After the death of his father in 1932, he and his brother Josef von Matt took over the bookstore including the second-hand bookshop and the associated publishing business. The father handed over the bookbinding and stationery, which also belonged to the family business, to his son Franz von Matt a year earlier .

As president of the Nidwalden mountain club founded in 1935, Leonard von Matt campaigned for the construction of a club hut on the Jochpass . In 1936 the Trübsee Alpine Cooperative sold him the land in question and in the same year he put the newly built mountain hut into operation. The blossoming winter tourism in Engelberg ensured steady income and enabled him to get out of the family business in 1937. With the money he had received for his share in the business, he then bought an old farmhouse on the Ennerberg, a hill between Stans and Buochs.

Leonard von Matt was self-taught . At the beginning of his photographic career he studied books and brochures on the subject of photography and closely followed the work of other colleagues such as Paul Senn , Jakob Tuggener , Gotthard Schuh , Martin Imboden and the work of the American avant-garde artist Man Ray . Between 1938 and 1939 he spent a few months as a trainee in the graphics and photo studio of the brothers Hermann , Willy and Reinhold Eidenbenz in Basel . The plan to attend a photography school in Paris in the fall of 1939 failed when the Second World War broke out. Most of the photographs he took in Nidwalden were taken during his active service from 1939 to 1945 . From 1946 he took photos in Italy , Greece , Spain and France . He toured these countries together with his wife, Brigitte Lehmann, and from 1961 with his daughter. Both were his closest collaborators and supported him significantly in his photographic work.

The income from his Jochpass hut and other additional income, including from forestry , enabled him and his wife to survive the first ten difficult years as a freelance photographer financially and remain independent. His success as a photographer didn't come until the 1950s. On November 12, 1988, he had a fatal accident on a mountain tour on the Arvigrat in the community of Wolfenschiessen.

plant

Leonard von Matt has published over fifty illustrated books, mainly in the fields of art , architecture and religion . He has received several awards for his work, including the 1974 Johann Melchior-Wyrsch Prize from the Schindler Cultural Foundation and the 1976 Central Switzerland Prize .

The majority of his photographic legacy is at the Swiss Photo Foundation in Winterthur . Photographs from his early work on, among other things, everyday life, customs and folk culture in the canton of Nidwalden and the region are looked after by the non-profit foundation Leonard von Matt in Buochs .

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 1976: The Etruscans , Chäslager Stans
  • 1977: Art and Land of the Etruscans , Landis & Gyr, Zug
  • 1983: Dance through the millennia , Chäslager, Stans
  • 1989: Leonard von Matt memorial exhibition , Chäslager, Stans
  • 1995: Leonard von Matt , Kornschütte, Lucerne
  • 2018: Leonard von Matt. Photographs 1936–1946 , Nidwalden Museum , Stans

Group exhibitions

  • 1952: World Exhibition of Photography , Lucerne
  • 1957: Biennale di Fotografia , Venice
  • 1974: Photography in Switzerland from 1840 to today , Swiss Foundation for Photography at the Kunsthaus Zurich (traveling exhibition)
  • 1983: Stans Week , Chäslager, Stans
  • 2013: home and life. From the photo archive of an illustrated general-interest magazine, Museum im Bellpark, Kriens

Publications (selection)

Single publications

  • Fritz Flueler: Bärädi. A story from original Switzerland. CJ Bucher, Lucerne 1941.
  • Konstantin Vokinger: The Church of Stans. J. von Matt, Stans 1947.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: The Holy Brother Klaus. Official book of canonization. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1947.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: The Papal Swiss Guard. NZN-Verlag, Zurich 1948.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Rome. A standard work in 2 volumes. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1950.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Francis of Assisi. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1952.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Pius X. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1954.
  • Helga Pohl: Tonio and his donkey. Neptun-Verlag, Kreuzlingen 1955.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Dominikus. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1957.
  • Leonard von Matt; John, Rewald: Edgar Degas. The plastic work. Manesse, Zurich 1957.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Italy and the Italians. Fretz & Wasmuth, Zurich 1958.
  • Konstantin Vokinger: Nidwalden, country and people. J. von Matt, Stans 1958.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: The Aeginetes. The gable sculptures of the temple of Aphaia on Aegina, in: Du. Cultural monthly. No. 215, 1959.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Ancient Sicily. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1959.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: The Maximiliansgrab in the Hofkirche zu Innsbruck, in: Du. Cultural monthly. No. 239, Zurich 1961.
  • Kurt W. Forster, Leonhard von Matt: Benedetto Antelami. The great Romanesque sculptor of Italy. Hirmer, Munich 1961.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Roma Collection. 11 vol., NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1958–1961.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Greater Greece. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich, 1961.
  • Heinrich Böll: Assisi. Knorr & Hirth, Munich 1962.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: The Popes. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1963.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Brother Klaus. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1963.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: The Caesars. A story of the Roman rulers in pictures and words. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1964.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Don Bosco. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1965.
  • Pietro Griffo; Leonard von Matt: Gela. Fate of a Greek city in Sicily. Echter, Würzburg 1964.
  • Leonard von Matt; Jeannine Auboyer: Khmer Art, in: Du - Atlantis. No. 297, Zurich 1965.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Ancient Crete. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1967.
  • Leonard von Matt: Under the sign of the Minotaur. Minoan art in Crete, in: You. Cultural monthly. No. 311, Zurich 1967.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Art and Land of the Etruscans. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1969.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: The art collections of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Rome. DuMont, Cologne 1969.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Il centro storico di Genova. Stringa, Genoa 1969.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Piazza Navona. Isola dei Pamphilj. Franco Spinosi, Rome 1970.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Ravenna. DuMont, Cologne 1971.
  • Theodor Kraus, Leonard von Matt: Pompeji and Herculaneum. Face and fate of two ancient cities. DuMont, Cologne 1973.
  • Mario Moretti , Leonard von Matt: Etruscan painting in Tarquinia. DuMont, Cologne 1974.
  • Leonard von Matt, Franco Barelli: Rome. Art and culture of the "Eternal City" in more than 1000 pictures. DuMont, Cologne 1975.
  • Leonard von Matt: The Etruscans. Catalog, self-published, Buochs ​​1976.
  • Hans Mühlestein: The veiled gods. New Genesis of the Italian Renaissance. Andres, Biel 1981.
  • Hans Muheim: Urner Boden. Becoming and living a high valley in Uri. NZN-Buchverlag, Zurich 1986.
  • Leonard von Matt; Madeleine Kaiser-von Matt; Melk Imboden: Leonard von Matt. Photographs 1938–1973. Benteli, Bern 1995.

Collective publications

  • Arnold Kübler (Ed.): Our Leave in Switzerland. 200 photos. A souvenir of the visit of American soldiers to Switzerland in 1945/46. Cooperative Zur Limmat, Zurich 1945.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: Uri (= The Folk Heritage of Switzerland , Vol. 6). Urs Graf Verlag, Basel 1946.
  • Franz Adam Roedelberger: The book of creative joy . Interverlag, Zurich 1947
  • Maurice Collet (Ed.): Photo 49. Photographie en Suisse. Photography in Switzerland. Swiss photography. Special issue by publicité et arts graphiques, Geneva 1949.
  • Franz Adam Roedelberger: The sun book from Bündnerland, Valais and Ticino. Association printing, Bern 1957.
  • Leonard von Matt et al .: The Vatican. Neptune, Kreuzlingen 1968.
  • Swiss Foundation for Photography (Ed.): Photography in Switzerland from 1840 to today. Niggli, Teufen 1974.
  • Theodor Kraus: Lively Pompeii. Pompeii and Herculaneum: Face and Fate of Two Ancient Cities. DuMont, Cologne 1978.
  • Barry Cunliffe: Rome and her Empire. The Bodley Head, London 1978.

literature

  • René Perret: Striking similarity. Pioneers of Swiss photography. BEA, Brugg 1991.
  • Swiss Foundation for Photography (ed.): Photography in Switzerland from 1840 to today. Benteli, Bern 1992.
  • Paul Hugger (ed.): Worlds of rock and ice. Alpine photography in Switzerland, past and present. NZZ Libro, Zurich 2009.
  • Brigitt Flüeler, Jos Näpflin (ed.): Leonard von Matt. Early photographs. Limmat, Zurich 2018.
  • Matt, Leonard von. In: Sikart
  • Georg Sütterlin: Matt, Leonard von. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . October 29, 2009 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ From the hut to the Bärghuis - a story in itself. In: http://www.jochpass.ch/ . Berggasthaus Jochpass, accessed on June 11, 2018 .
  2. ^ Schindler Cultural Foundation: Prize Winner. In: http://www.schindlerkulturstiftung.ch/ . Schindler Kulturstiftung, 2018, accessed on June 11, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Central Switzerland Cultural Foundation: Awards Ceremonies. In: https://kultur.lu.ch/ . Cultural Funding Canton Lucerne, November 2010, accessed on June 11, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Leonard von Matt. Photographs 1936–1946
personal data
SURNAME Matt, Leonard von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss photographer
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Stans , Canton of Nidwalden
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1988
Place of death Wolf shooting