Fritz Schwimbeck (1889-1972)
"Brunnengespenst"
["Ghost of the Well"]
circa 1915-20
etching on paper
27 x 20 cm
signed in pencil lower right: "F. Schwimbeck"
titled in pencil lower left: "Brunnengespenst"
The Daulton Collection
"Fritz Schwimbeck (Munich 1889 – 1977 Friedberg) was a German painter, graphic artist, and art educator of the [Symbolist and] New Objectivity movement, focusing on fantastical illustrations, bookplates, and uncanny scenes. Born in Munich in 1889, the son of a teacher, he attended schools in Friedberg and Augsburg, studied drawing at the Technical University of Munich from 1908 to 1912, learned etching autodidactically from his uncle Friedrich Bodenmüller, taught at secondary schools in Edenkoben, Munich, and Bamberg from 1916, illustrated books by Gustav Meyrink and E.T.A. Hoffmann from 1919, became a senior teacher at the Luisengymnasium in Munich in 1925, led study trips to Greece and Egypt, and spent his retirement in Friedberg from 1945 onward. Schwimbeck created somber etchings, book illustrations, and oil paintings with sharp lines, expressionistic shadows, and psychological tension, influenced by Albrecht Dürer, fantastic literature, and Munich Modernism; [created]cycles such as 'Becoming-Passing Away,' bookplates, and still lifes with New Objectivity clarity and visionary intensity." W
