Ferdinand Schmutzer, Tagesneuigkeiten (The Day's News)
Etching, 1908
Even when he depicts a crowd scene, as in his etching of poor citizens of Vienna crowding in a soup line outside a monastery or convent, there is no sense of jostling or hubbub; instead one senses the silent resignation of people too tired to make much noise. This etching, the smaller of two versions of the same scene, is my favourite among the five etchings I possess by Ferdinand Schmutzer. It shows him able to tackle a really complex composition with great finesse, and it also beautifully demonstrates Schmutzer's mastery of light effects. I can't put it better than Clive, who writes in his Art and the Aesthete post on Schmutzer, "He has unusual skill in balancing the plain darks and lights with delicately fretted greys."
Ferdinand Schmutzer, Die "kleine" Klöstersuppe (The "little' Free Soup)
Etching, 1907
Schmutzer came from an artistic family. He was the son of the animal sculptor Ferdinand Schmutzer, and grandson of the sculptor Vincent Schmutzer. His great-grandfather Jacob Mathäus Schmutzer founded the Imperial Academy of Engraving, which mutated into the current Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where Ferdinand Schmutzer studied sculpture under Kuhne and etching under William Unger (winning the Prix National in 1894).
Ferdinand Schmutzer, Entdecktes Geheimniss (The Secret Discovered)
Etching, 1897
Ferdinand Schmutzer, Antwerpen (Antwerp)
Etching, 1915
Ferdinand Schmutzer, Blick auf die Kirche von Dürnstein (View of Dürnstein church)
Etching, 1921
Ferdinand Schmutzer produced around 300 etchings, which have been catalogued by Arpad Weixlgärtner in Das radierte Werk von Ferdinand Schmutzer, 1922. He also left more than 3000 glass plate photographs, an important part of his artistic legacy that has only recently been uncovered. Like his etchings, Schmutzer's photographs are highly sensitive to the play of light and shade
6 comments:
A nicely researched piece Neil. There is a LOT to the works of Schmutzer, and I have been seeing his works a lot lately and I am wondering if he is on the cusp of resdiscovery. I think it is generally thought that Schmutzer was one of the finest of the European etchers in his day, and yet his reputation hasn't survived. I also think the glass photographs were the source of much of his etching inspiration. I think it is a topic to be researched, because I don't think Schmutzer was the only one to have gone down that road.
Thanks, Clive. I haven't seen enough of Schmutzer's photographs to know how they interrelate with the etchings. He certainly seems to have used them as reference for portraits, and it seems likely this would have extended to other subjects. But I also get the feeling he saw photography as an independent art form. He may have been cautious about being identified as a photographer, though, as that might have had negative implications for the way his art was viewed at the time.
Outstanding etchings. What a delicate, pencil-like touch he has in the Antwerp view and the landscape.
He did indeed have a delicate touch - which has probably been his downfall in art historical terms, because first the Symbolists and then the Expressionists took Germanic art into a much bolder and more strident aesthetic. Not that he was behind the times, but perhaps not quite in tune with them. At least in retrospect, if that makes sense.
when i read about his art of balancing "plain darks and lights with delicately fretted greys", i immediately thought that he would have made a wonderful photographer, and then arriving at the end of the post and reading the comments, i see he indeed was one. i will check his photos, i am very curious, i hope i can find some on the internet.
Roxana - I haven't found many of Schmutzer's photos on the net - they are quite a recent discovery, so I suspect they are being kept a bit under wraps while a book is prepared. The very evocative description of his "delicately fretted greys" is of course Clive's not mine.
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