Willy Sparrow

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Willy Sparrow. Illustration of the title page "Rhein und Düssel", the illustrated Sunday supplement to the "Düsseldorfer Neuesten Nachrichten", no. 4 of January 27, 1907

Willy Spatz (born September 7, 1861 in Düsseldorf ; † August 4, 1931 there ) was a German painter and lithographer .

life and work

Willy Spatz: portrait of a young woman. Charcoal on cardboard. Year of origin not known
Escape of the Holy Family , exhibited in the exhibition palace in Düsseldorf , 1902
Justice , symbolist mural of a "seeing" Justitia in the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court , 1913

Wilhelm Spatz, called Willy, was the fifth child of eight children of the married couple Gustav Wilhelm Gerhard Spatz, merchant and lottery collector in Düsseldorf, and Johanna Wilhelmina, née Erbach.

In 1879 Willy Spatz finished his education at the municipal high school in Klosterstrasse Düsseldorf. Until 1891, living in his mother's house at Sternstrasse 71, he then attended the Düsseldorf Art Academy . There he was a student of Hugo Crola (preparatory class), Heinrich Lauenstein (elementary class), Adolf Schill (decoration and ornamentation class) and Johann Peter Theodor Janssen , whose master class he became. He learned printmaking techniques from Carl Ernst Forberg . He developed his talent as a lithographer as a member of the “St. Lukas Club ”, founded by Olof Jernberg , Heinrich Hermanns , Helmuth Liesegang , August Deusser , Otto Heichert , Gustav Wendling and Arthur Kampf , who married his youngest sister Mathilde Spatz (1869–1950) in 1889.

Spatz then went to Munich to study with Carl von Marr at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts for a year . This period was of great importance for his artistic development, both in terms of color and in terms of Munich art's own way of depicting religious motifs in a contemporary and genre-like manner. He went on a study trip to Paris.

In 1897 Spatz was appointed to the Düsseldorf Academy, initially as a professor in the elementary class. As a full professor, he was head of the painting department until 1926 , and he also ran a women's art school. Spatz is considered one of the late representatives of the Düsseldorf School of Painting . Even his early paintings are characterized by a mixture of traditional pathos of history painting , genre-like tendencies and modern striving for abstraction. His work shows the effective use of light in Parisian salon painting , mood-setting design elements of Art Nouveau and a blatant, sometimes caricatured realism by old masters.

He is particularly known for his large-scale historicizing wall and oil paintings . In particular, a cycle of mural paintings in the chapel of Schloss Burg an der Wupper (created from 1899 to 1901) gave him the breakthrough for a whole series of other such creations. In the chapel he depicted "The power of Christianity over the spirit of men". The first picture shows St. Suitbertus, preaching , the "Apostle of the Bergisches Land". The second picture is a triptych and illustrates the biblical word I want to draw them all to me . The third picture shows the rose garden of heavenly paradise . Further works of this kind are five wall paintings, a "seeing" Justitia and four historical scenes from German court life in the large plenary hall of the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf from 1913. In 1902 Spatz received the Red Eagle Order IV class, awarded by Wilhelm II.

Most of Spatz's great works were destroyed in World War II. However, the cycle has been preserved in the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, including its explanations. Willy Spatz depicted scenes “from the development of German legal life”. The picture Walk of the Shepherds to the Holy Family from 1892, damaged in the war, has now been extensively restored and is now in the Museum Kunstpalast .

In the words of Friedrich Schaarschmidt , curator of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Spatz began an independent line, a “ fantastic direction ” in painting, which Schaarschmidt described as “a kind of Düsseldorf neo-romanticism”. Schaarschmidt recognized a difference to the religious painting of the late Nazarene and Eduard Gebhardts in particular in the “unrealistic” use of color, which he attributed to the artistic intention of producing psychological effects and moods. With regard to his figures, however, Spatz sought an exact historical representation. Therefore, before making his paintings, he carried out extensive research on sources. For him, historical accuracy took precedence over artistic freedom. For many of his works it has been shown that the people portrayed have strong similarities with Düsseldorf personalities.

Spatz was a member of the Düsseldorfer Künstlerverein Malkasten , was on the board of directors around 1900 and (at least for the first issue of 1900) was also an artistic advisor to the magazine Die Rheinlande . During the First World War he kept a historically important diary in 21 volumes with around 10,000 pages.

After his death in 1931, a memorial exhibition in honor of him and Wilhelm Degode was held in the Kunsthalle in early 1932 .

student

literature

  • Sparrow, Willy . In: Friedrich von Boetticher : painter works of the nineteenth century. Contribution to art history . Volume II, Dresden 1898, p. 780.
  • Galerie G. Paffrath (Ed.): Willy Spatz: Oil studies, watercolors, drawings; June – September 1982. Exhibition catalog. G. Paffrath Gallery, Düsseldorf 1982.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry by the company GW Gerh. Spatz, May 30, 1862, Gustav Wilhelm Gerhard Spatz, merchant and lottery collector in Düsseldorf , in the official gazette for the administrative district of Düsseldorf, 1862. Oeffentlicher Anzeiger. No. 48, p. 380
  2. ^ Family book Euregio: Family von Willy Spatz
  3. ↑ List of pupils who have left Prima and Seconda since the establishment of the institution: 1879 Wilhelm Spatz , in a commemorative publication for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Realgymnasium on May 28, 1838, Voss, Düsseldorf, 1888, p. 133
  4. ↑ Sternstrasse 71, Spatz, Gustav Gerh. Pensioner E (= owner), Spatz, Wilhelm, Maler , in the address book of the city of Düsseldorf for the year 1893, p. 636
  5. ^ Friedrich Schaarschmidt: On the history of Düsseldorf art, especially in the XIX. Century . Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia, Düsseldorf 1902, p. 364 ff. ( Digitized version )
  6. ↑ Willy Spatz ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), website in the galerie-paffrath.de portal , accessed on January 9, 2016
  7. ^ The history of the court from 1906 to 1933
  8. ↑ Personal news : His Majesty Emperor and King have rested most graciously, (...), the history painter, Professor Willy Spatz zu Düsseldorf the Red Eagle Order IV. Class, (...) , in the Official Gazette for the Düsseldorf administrative district, 1902, p. 392
  9. ^ Artwork of the month March: Willy Spatz (1861–1931) Walk of the Shepherds to the Holy Family , 1892 , at Museum Kunstpalast , accessed on March 11, 2017
  10. ↑ 41. Artists' Association Malkasten, op. Honorary members: Andreas Achenbach, Ludwig Knaus, Adolf Menzel, Oswald Achenbach; b. Board of Directors: Erdmann, Geyer, Lins, Prof. Kröner, Kohlen, Preyer, Massau, Otto, Prof. Spatz in the address book of the city of Düsseldorf for the year 1900, associations, p. 987
  11. ↑ Michael Brockerhoff: painter Willy Spatz as a world war chronicler . Article from August 13, 2014 in the portal rp-online.de , accessed on January 9, 2016
  12. ↑ Notable incidents from October 1, 1931 to October 1, 1932 , in the address book of the city of Düsseldorf, 1933
  13. ^ Ernst Stege (1896–1918) studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, pupil of Willy Spatz, member of the Malkasten artists' association, killed in the First World War.
personal data
SURNAME Sparrow, Willy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sparrow, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter of historicism, professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1931
Place of death Dusseldorf