Walter Stroke Chapell

Walter Strich-Chapell (born July 28, 1877 in Stuttgart , † July 17, 1960 in Sersheim ) was a German painter . In particular, he created landscapes of the Swabian Alb .

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The Walter Strich-Chapells family comes from Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle in French). It was there that his grandfather adopted the double name Strich-Chapell. His father, Ferdinand Strich-Chapell, was a newspaper editor and, under the pseudonym August Kratzberger, also an illustrator for the Swabian Merkur , later for the Württemberg General Gazette. Walter Strich-Chapell grew up in Stuttgart and there he attended the Karls-Gymnasium . However, he had to give up school when his father died in 1891 at the age of 41. Then, at the request of his guardian, Strich-Chapell began an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in Stuttgart and then, after passing the journeyman's examination, took up a position as a theater painter at the Royal Residence Theater in Stuttgart. In 1895, in addition to his professional activity, he attended the arts and crafts school in Stuttgart and took a course to train as a drawing teacher.

In his spare time he painted and drew. He met the painter Gustav Schönleber , who was teaching in Karlsruhe, in Besigheim . Schönleber recognized Strich-Chapell's talent and helped him to get a scholarship. In 1897, Strich-Chapell was able to begin studying at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe . He began in Robert Pötzelberger's drawing class and became a master student of Gustav Schönleber in 1900, with whom he soon became friends. He came with Schönleber in 1901 on a study trip to Sersheim, Ludwigsburg district. The Stromberg, the Mettertal and Sersheim's church tower became the painter's favorite motifs.

During this time he also dealt with lithography. In 1904, Strich took part in a lithography competition organized by the Teubner publishing house in Leipzig and won a prize of several thousand marks. With this prize money he bought a plot of land in Sersheim, whereupon he built a house according to his own plans, which later became the "Villa in the Park". In the same year he married the singer Maria Leipheimer. In 1907 he received citizenship in Sersheim.

In Meßstetten he was also commissioned to create pictures for the art nouveau church built by architect Martin Elsaesser in 1912/13 . They fell victim to a redesign of the church in 1960, at the time when the style of the line chapels was no longer appreciated.

During the First World War , Strich-Chapell was called up for military service, but was given leave in 1917 to organize the estate of the late Gustav Schönleber. In 1923 he took Alexander Kanoldt on a journey of several months to Olevano in Italy. Back in Sersheim, he painted numerous pictures with motifs from the Swabian Alb.

Strich-Chapell's wife Maria geb. Leipheimer died in 1936. The following year he married a niece of his wife, Hildegard Lödel, who had been in charge of the artist couple's household since the 1920s.

In 1954 he said about his relationship with the Swabian Alb and Meßstetten: “I was always drawn up to the Alb, especially the rough Alb, in the area of ​​Meßstetten, Ebingen. Here I was to be found again and again, because from the beginning I tried to represent the original nature in its moods in the change of the seasons and times of the day, nature, untouched by humans and by the changes that were imposed on it by the work of his hands. "

Even at an old age, when he was already in a wheelchair because of a hip problem, he worked tirelessly. Since he could no longer walk, he painted many still lifes and landscapes from memory.

Walter Strich-Chapell died on July 17, 1960 in Sersheim and was buried in the family grave there.

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Walter Strich-Chapell - Tübingen vom Österberg

Strich-Chapell paintings hang in the district office of the Zollernalb district in Balingen and in the Albstadt municipal gallery. The painter has often given the Sersheim town hall as well as various Sersheim associations and citizens with pictures, so that many of his works can also be found in his home town of Sersheim. At a commemorative exhibition for his 100th birthday in 1977, 60 pictures were on view, which at the time were exclusively in private ownership in Sersheim. Strich-Chapell's pictures of Swabian landscapes are popular with collectors.

literature

• Rudolf Bayer (ed.): Walter Strich-Chapell 1877–1960 , Kunsthaus Schaller, Stuttgart 1985 (published on the occasion of the anniversary exhibition 125 Years of the Kunsthaus Schaller , 23 May to June 1985).
• Peter Eichhorn (Ed.): Walter Strich-Chapell , Culture and Sports Office of the City of Bietigheim-Bissingen, Bietigheim-Bissingen 2003, ISBN 3-927877-56-5 .
• Adolf Schahl: Walter Strich-Chapell 1877–1960 . In: "Schwäbische Heimat", Vol. 4 (1962), ISSN  0342-7595 , pp. 150-154.
• Christa Specht: The painter and honorary citizen Walter Strich-Chapell . In: Dies .: Sersheim. History and stories, 792–1992 , Aldus-Verlag, Sersheim 1992, ISBN 3-522-30470-5 .

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1928 Kunsthaus Schaller, Stuttgart
• 1934 Kunsthaus Schaller, Stuttgart
• 1937 Kunsthaus Schaller, Stuttgart
• 1942 House of German Art, Munich (group exhibition, 3 pictures)
• 1962 Memorial exhibition at the Kunsthaus Schaller and Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart
• 1969 Town Hall, Bissingen
• 1970 Festival hall of the Uhlandbau, Mühlacker
• 1977 Hofäckerschule, Sersheim (memorial exhibition)
• 1985 Ludwigsburg district building: Walter Strich-Chapell 1877–1960
• 2003/2004 Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen : Walter Strich-Chapell retrospective
• 2010 Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart
• 2015 Kunsthaus Bühler, Stuttgart

Honors

• 1949 honorary member of the Swabian Heimatbund
• 1952 Professor , title awarded by the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Reinhold Maier (on the occasion of his 75th birthday)
• 1957 honorary citizen of Sersheim (on the occasion of the 80th birthday)
• 1985 Establishment of a memorial room in the archive of the community of Sersheim

Web links

• Literature by and about Walter Strich-Chapell in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The appointment took place in the context of the 40th anniversary of the federal government on May 22, 1949: Honor roll. In: Schwäbisches Heimatbuch 1949. Ed. By Felix Schuster on behalf of the Schwäbisches Heimatbund. Stuttgart [1949], pp. 176–177, p. 176 (last name written there as Strich-Chapelle ).
2. ↑ 25 years of archive work. In: Vaihinger Kreiszeitung. The Enzbote of February 27, 2010 ( online at www.vkz.de ). - Archive with Strich-Chapell-Zimmer on www.sersheim.de .