Rudolf Bäumer (painter)

Rudolf Bäumer (1910)

Nordic Heath (1915)

In the Urheide

The snowshoe

Rudolf Bäumer (born February 24, 1870 in Krefeld , † January 2, 1964 in Bad Fallingbostel ) was a German painter.

origin

Bäumer was the eldest son of the silk manufacturer Gottfried Bäumer (born August 6, 1830 in Krefeld; † September 16, 1904 in Krefeld) and his wife Catharina Helene, née Tack (born February 9, 1838 in Krefeld; † March 14, 1917 in Johannisburg / East Prussia), born. Although interested in art from an early age - above all in painting - he only turned to art studies after completing the commercial training his father had requested.

education

In 1893 he moved to the Royal Prussian Art Academy in Düsseldorf and went through a. a. the painting classes with Peter Janssen the Elder (1844–1908), Arthur Kampf (1864–1950) and Eduard von Gebhardt (1838–1925). The decisive factor for his specialization as a landscape painter was the lessons with Julius Bergmann (1861–1940), who worked as an animal and landscape painter at the academy from 1897 and had a lasting influence on Bäumer. In 1905 Bergmann received a call to the Grand Ducal Art School ( State Academy of Fine Arts ) in Karlsruhe and Bäumer followed him there as his master student. In 1905 Bäumer became a member of the Badischer Kunstverein . In lively exchange and competition with an innovative artist community, Bäumer developed his own impressionistic style, which is particularly evident in his lithographs. The focus of his creative period in Karlsruhe are pure landscapes, portraits and depictions of animals in their respective natural surroundings. He was recognized by exhibitions, etc. a. in Düsseldorf, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Speyer and Karlsruhe. During this artistically significant period for Bäumer, he also found personal fulfillment: in 1909 he married Emma, ​​née Hochwarth (born March 18, 1882 in Untergimping; † October 4, 1951 in Walsrode).

Fallingbostel

Bäumer, who had repeatedly visited the Lüneburg Heath during the academic summer holidays since 1895 , moved there with his family to Fallingbostel in 1911 . Many of the works that followed, especially in the years between the two world wars, are predominantly landscapes in the vicinity of Fallingbostel: painted over a large area or with accentuated, close-up, solitary tree / juniper motifs, with which he depicts the mood in front of a high-contrast, moving sky . The other repertoire includes rural scenes. In his older work, landscape compositions with figures or buildings are rarer. In 1943 a large part of his works, which were in Hamburg collections, were destroyed. His colossal painting (approx. 200 x 350) "The Great Stone Grave", an exhibit in the former National Socialist consecration hall in Buchholz near Harburg, was burned in 1945 by British troops.

Selected works

• Nordic Heath, lithograph around 1915 (private collection)
• Spring Forest, Edition Voigtländerverlag (private collection)
• The snowshoe walker, oil on canvas around 1906 (55x73) (private property)
• In der Lieth, oil on canvas around 1923 (70 x 117) (private collection)
• The old smoke house on Sammann-Eickhoffs Hof, oil on cardboard around 1920 (29 x 34) private property
• The great stone grave, oil on canvas around 1919 (41 x 68) Wvz 52, private collection
• In der Urheide, oil on canvas, (58 x109) approx. 1920 Wvz 55, private property
• Mother and Child, oil on canvas (58 x 51) 1910 private property

Exhibitions

• Bäumer was represented several times during his lifetime at exhibitions in Düsseldorf, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Speyer and Stuttgart.
• 1921: Klub Union in Uelzen
• 1923 to 1936: annual exhibitions in Fallingbostel
• 2014: Exhibition on the 50th anniversary of the death of the heath painter Rudolf Bäumers in Bad Fallingbostel

literature

• Catalog of the original lithographs - etchings - woodcuts of the Künstlerbund Karlsruhe. Publishing house of the Künstlerbund Karlsruhe, 1910, p. 10 (four lithographs by Bäumer)
• Fritz Wolff, Rudolf Bäumer-Fallingbostel painting exhibition on May 1 and 2 in the rooms of the Union-Uelzen Club, in: Allgemeine Zeitung der Lüneburger Heide (Uelzener Kreiszeitung) No. 94 of April 23, 1921
• H. Bartels, Der Heidemaler Rudolf Bäumer, in: Walsroder Zeitung of July 20, 1925
• Address book and business manual for Fallingbostel, 1926 p. 17 f.
• The Bäumer painting exhibition 1927, in: Walsroder Zeitung of July 9, 1927
• Rudolf Klessing, Hundreds of Heidebilder - Rudolf Bäumer's life's work, in: Walsroder Zeitung of February 24, 1960
• On the trail of the red-bearded artist, in: Walsroder Zeitung of March 11, 2003
• Wolfgang Brandes, A long painter's life in the adopted country of Fallingbostel, in: Yearbook of the district of Soltau, Fallingbostel 2006, pp. 88–91.
• Exhibition catalog: Karlsruhe color lithograph around 1900 from the van der Grinten collection. Museum Schloß Moyland, Bedburg-Hau 2006, p. 19
• Jürgen F. Münch u. Thorsten Neubert-Preine, In Search of the Fleeting Moment. A quiet man in the country - on the 50th anniversary of the death of the Bad Fallingbostler landscape painter Rudolf Bäumer, in: Walsroder Zeitung of January 24, 2014
• Exhibition catalog, The painter and his work, on the 50th anniversary of his death January 2, 2014, self-published, publisher: Dr. Ingrid and Jürgen-F. Münch, Thorsten Neubert-Preine, MA., Bad Fallingbostel 2014