Theodor Schindler

Theodor Schindler, self-portrait, 1913

Theodor Schindler (born April 1, 1870 in Malsch ; † June 26, 1950 there ) was a painter and drawing teacher.

Life

Schindler was born in Malsch in 1870 as the son of the Schindler hosts. His mother was born Kastner and her family had owned the “Hirsch” inn in Malsch for a long time. His father Franz Karl Schindler came from Waldprechtsweier. He had seven siblings, but four of them died in infancy. The Kastner family was relatively wealthy and collected furniture and books. When Schindler began to draw, his mother recognized his talent and encouraged him as best she could. After school he began training as a drawing teacher at the Karlsruhe School of Applied Arts, which he completed in 1889. His father died in the same year.

When he was about to take up a position as a drawing teacher, he asked for time off and began studying art at the Grand Ducal Academy of Arts in Karlsruhe. There he studied from 1891 to 1895 under Ferdinand Keller and Leopold von Kalckreuth .

In 1895 he traveled to Munich to improve his talent and technique in the private painting school of Professor Fehr and Ludwig Schmid-Reutte . Presumably during his time in Munich he also learned to take photographs and acquired the plate camera, which he used to take pictures of family members and his future wife Mathilde Göller. The painting school was prestigious and therefore not easy to finance, without the support of his family it would not have been possible. Schindler knew that he couldn't drag out his studies too long and that he had to earn money. He therefore turned his back on Munich in 1901 and took up a position as a trainee teacher at the secondary school in Heidelberg .

In 1902 he moved to Mannheim , where he taught at the Karl-Friedrich-Gymnasium until 1913. In 1903 he married Mathilde Göller (1878–1944), the daughter of the Malscher senior teacher Göller, whom he had known for a long time and who had already appeared in some of his pictures before. In 1906 their daughter Klara was born. It was to remain the only child. His mother died in 1908 at the age of 68. The family lived in Mannheim until 1913.

In addition to his educational work, he continued to devote himself to painting. His talent found more and more attention and he was able to establish contacts with art associations and galleries. In 1910 Paul Cassirer's prestigious art gallery in Berlin showed some of his paintings. His works received a lot of attention. They were generally seen as a continuation of the style of Wilhelm Trübner and Ferdinand Hodler . The Munich Secession showed one of his paintings, as did the Kunsthalle in Bremen and the Kunstverein Barmen .

In 1912 he was allowed to participate in the highly regarded international art exhibition of the Sonderbund of West German Art Friends and Artists in Cologne in 1912 with a painting. The Mannheimer Tagblatt describes him as "Mannheim's representative of modernity". He was now 42 years old and was widely recognized as an expressive artist. His pictures sold well and everyone seemed convinced that they had a brilliant career ahead of them. From genre painting he turned increasingly to nude and figure painting, but his passion was landscape painting, which, however, received less attention. Above all, his figure paintings were shown by the art halls.

In 1913 he was appointed to represent Gari Melchers at the Grand Ducal Saxon Art School in Weimar . He hoped to succeed Professor Albin Egger-Lienz . In 1914 he was appointed professor. To his chagrin, however, the title only applied to Weimar. Then the First World War broke out. Schindler had to return to school in Mannheim. The war prevented his further career.

After the war he only exhibited at regional exhibitions in Mannheim, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe. Numerous landscapes of Mannheim and the Rhine were created. The director of the Mannheimer Kunsthalle , Dr. Fritz Wichert, had already supported him earlier, and his successor Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub , director from 1923, was also very keen on him. His pictures were also shown in the gallery of the Buck brothers and in Herbert Tannenbaum's "Kunsthaus" and sold well. Since the First World War he had more and more problems with his health and often had to be on sick leave. In 1924, at the age of 54, he was given early retirement.

He left Mannheim in 1925, shortly before Hartlaub put together the highly regarded exhibition Neue Sachlichkeit . His daughter Klara began her studies at the Karlsruhe Art Academy with Professor Hubbuch . Later she worked as a drawing teacher in Moosbach and at the Fichteschule in Karlsruhe.

Theodor Schindler now visited his birthplace Malsch more and more often. His late mother had left him some money and property. Finally he decided to build a house on the inherited land, the former water meadows. In 1932 he commissioned the Karlsruhe architect Günthner to do this. His knowledge of the Bauhaus concepts flowed into the planning. Large windows can be found in every room. The rooms are grouped around a central staircase. However, he did not adopt the typical Bauhaus flat roof.

The art scene had changed a lot since the 1930s. The mostly Jewish gallery owners were ousted or emigrated. Schindler, who really only wanted to perfect his talent, suddenly saw his art being absorbed by politics. In 1933, after he had moved to Malsch with his family, the new director of the art school and Badische Kunsthalle, Hans Adolf Bühler, appointed by the National Socialists, organized an exhibition under the title Government Art from 1918 to 1933 . It was the first exhibition that was about the defamation and exposure of the participating artists. Schindler was also one of the artists who were denounced in Karlsruhe. Schindler was horrified and avoided exhibiting his pictures or selling them publicly until the end of the war. He survived the war with numerous commissioned paintings for citizens of Malsch.

In 1945 shortly before the end of the war, his wife Mathilde died at the age of 68. 3 years earlier, his daughter Klara had married her fellow student Werner Koch. After Koch was called up for military service, Klara lived with her father in Malsch. Her son Nikolaus (1943) was born there. After the end of World War II, Werner Koch returned prematurely from captivity. From then on, the young family lived under one roof with Theodor Schindler. Together with his son-in-law, numerous pictures were taken from the Malsch area. In 1947 the Badischer Kunstverein devoted a collective exhibition to him.

Congratulatory articles appeared in the newspapers in Mannheim and Karlsruhe on his 80 birthday.

Schindler died at home on June 26, 1950.

Style direction

At first he was attached to naturalistic painting in the style of Trübner . After 1910 there were more and more naturalistic figures with strong contours on biblical themes similar to symbolism in the style of Ferdinand Hodler . Influences of French painting can also be recognized. B. by Cézanne in treating the surface. In the 20s he dealt with Expressionism and Cubism . In contrast to the celebrities of the New Objectivity, Schindler had no political tendencies. His motifs are timeless. There was a development from naturalism to an art that is closer to the New Objectivity than to Expressionism.

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1909 Exhibition at Cassirer , Berlin
• 1910 Participation in the spring exhibition of the Munich Secession
• 1912 International art exhibition of the Sonderbund of West German Art Friends and Artists 1912 , oil painting: Woman with a shell.
• 1912 Participation in the exhibition of the “ Secession Munich ” Oil painting: Resting act
• 1912 Exhibition in the Hall of Fame, Kunstverein Barmen
• 1912 Exhibition in Heinrich Thannhauser's “Modern Gallery” , Munich
• 1913 Collective exhibition in the art salon of the Buck brothers, Mannheim
• 1913 Exhibition at the Kunstverein Leipzig
• 1913 artist association exhibition at the Kunstverein Mannheim
• 1916 Exhibition Theodor Schindler, Oskar Frenzel and Ernst Müller-Gräfe , Heidelberger Kunstverein,
• 1918–1925 exhibitions at the Kunstverein Mannheim, Kunstverein Karlsruhe and at the Buck Art Salon, Das Kunsthaus (Dr. Herbert Tannenbaum)
• 1919 Exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim
• 1925 Exhibition of the Mannheim artist group 1925 in the Kunsthalle Mannheim
• 1933 Exhibited at the defamatory exhibition Government Art from 1918 to 1933 in Karlsruhe
• 1947 Exhibition of LW Plock, Th. Schindler and Karl Sulzer, in the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe
• 1951 memorial exhibition, Mannheim Kunstverein
• 1996 Exhibition in Malsch Town Hall near Ettlingen
• 2007 to 2012 exhibition in the Schindlerhaus Malsch near Ettlingen

Works (selection)

Around 800 pictures, of which the Schindler family still has around 40 pictures from the period 1900 to 1950.

• Type: mostly oil on canvas; also drawing, lithography, woodcut, watercolor.
• Topics: figure, landscape, still life, portrait and nude.

Most of the paintings he sold were lost in the turmoil of World War II or are privately owned. Some of his works can only be found in the Kunsthalle Wuppertal (von der Heydt Museum), the Kunsthalle Mannheim and Karlsruhe.

• Farmer in a red vest, oil on canvas, 100 × 85 cm, Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal
• Farmer's wife, 1909, oil on canvas, 120 × 76 cm, Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal
• Farmer in the open air, 1910, oil on canvas, Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv.no.M309)
• This side, oil on canvas
• Early in the morning, oil on canvas
• Woman with a Bowl, 1911, oil on canvas
• Madonna, 1911, oil on canvas, 114 × 96
• Profile picture of a seated woman, 1912, oil on canvas, 68 × 55 cm, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (inv.no.1395)
• Am Rhein, 1912, washed ink drawing, Kunsthalle Mannheim (Inv.No.G2356)
• Landscape with 2 trees (country house), oil / textile image carrier, Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv. No. M311)
• Rebekka (at the well), 1913, oil on canvas, 100 × 130
• The stony ground
• Emmaus, 1913, 125 × 105
• Self-portrait, 1913, oil on canvas, 95 × 85
• Seated female nude, 1913, oil / textile image carrier, Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv.no.M901)
• Still life with a colored jug, 1913, oil / burlap (jute), Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv.no. M1502)
• Summer landscape, 1914, oil / textile image carrier, Kunsthalle Mannheim (Inv.No.M369)
• Geiger, 1914, oil on canvas, 98 × 110
• Girl with the oranges, 1916, 65 × 76
• Reclining woman = resting girl ?, 1913, oil on canvas, 58 × 65
• Yellow tree, 1915, oil on canvas, 58 × 66
• The gray house
• City gate, 1919, chalk drawing, Kunsthalle Mannheim (Inv.No.G1380)
• Farmer Looking Up, 1920, oil on canvas, 90 × 92
• Head of an old woman, around 1921, charcoal drawing, Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv.no.G1648)
• Houses on the Bach, 1925, oil / textile image carrier, Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv.no.M626)
• Houses on the Bach, 1927, India ink, pencil, black chalk; 57 × 41.5 cm, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (Inv.No. VIII 2326)
• Steile Gasse, 1927, ink and charcoal drawing, Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv.no.G2598)
• Friedrichsbrücke boat landing stage, 1928, oil / textile image carrier, Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv.no.M1930)
• Rheinhafen, 1928, oil / textile image carrier, Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv.no.M693)

literature

• Grand Ducal Museum for Art and Applied Arts (ed.): Paintings and drawings by Professor Theodor Schindler in Mannheim . R. Wagner Sohn, Weimar February 1917, OCLC 551822614 .
• Hermann Alexander Müller, Hans Wolfgang Singer: Schindler, Theodor . In: General Artist Lexicon . tape 6 . Literary Institute, Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt a. M. 1922, p. 250 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Schindler, Theodor . 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. 77 .
• Theodor Schindler . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 4 : Q-U . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1958, p. 188 .
• Busse directory: International handbook of all painters and sculptors of the 19th century. Verlag Busse Art Documentation, Frankfurt 1977.
• Theodor Schindler. Catalog for the 1996 exhibition in Malsch, edited by Karl-Ludwig Hofmann. Publisher Malsch municipality.
• Schindler, Theodor. In: Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Univ. Press, 2010, OCLC 5695820395 .

Web links

• Theodor Schindler Archive
• Painter Theodor Schindler heimatfreunde-malsch.de
• Theodor Schindler (German, 1870–1950) artnet.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tagblatt Mannheim. Excerpt from July 26, 1912.
2. ^ Stephanie Barron, Peter Guenther: Degenerate Art - the fate of the avant-garde in Nazi Germany. Verlag Hirmer, 1992, ISBN 3-7774-5880-5 , p. 99 Mention of Tannenbaum and Schindler.