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Willy Spatz

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Willy Spatz. Illustration of the title page of "Rhein und Düssel", the illustrated Sunday supplement to the Düsseldorfer Neuesten Nachrichten, No. 4 from 27 January 1907

Willy Spatz (7 September 1861 – 4 August 1931) was a German painter and lithographer.

Life and work

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Willy Spatz: Porträt einer jungen Frau. Charcoal on cardboard. Year of origin not known
Flucht der Heiligen Familie, exposed in Ausstellungspalast Düsseldorf, 1902
Die Gerechtigkeit, Symbolist Mural of a seing Lady Justice im Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf, 1913

Born in Düsseldorf, Spatz, called Willy, was the fifth child of eight children of Gustav Wilhelm Gerhard Spatz, merchant and lottery collector in Düsseldorf[1] and Johanna Wilhelmina, née Erbach.[2]

In 1879, Spatz completed his school education at the Humboldt-Gymnasium Düsseldorf [de] in Klosterstraße Düsseldorf.[3] Until 1891, living in the house of his mother Sternstraße 71,[4] he then attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. There he was a pupil of Hugo Crola (preparatory class), Heinrich Lauenstein (elementary class), Adolf Schill (decoration and ornamentation class) and Johann Peter Theodor Janssen, whose master pupil 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 had married his youngest sister Mathilde Spatz (1869-1950) in 1889.

Spatz then went to Munich for a year to Carl von Marr at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Both in colouristic and in terms of the way of depicting religious motifs in a contemporary and genre-like manner, which was peculiar to Munich art, this period was of great importance for his artistic development.[5] He undertook a study trip to Paris.

In 1897, Spatz received an appointment at the Düsseldorf Academy, first as professor of the elementary class. Until 1926, he was ordentlicher Professor Head of the Painting Department, alongside which he ran a ladies' painting school in the studio building Wunderbau [de] in Pempelfort until 1915.[6] Spatz is considered one of the late representatives of the Düsseldorf school of painting. Even his early paintings are characterised by a mixture of traditional pathos of history painting, genre-like tendencies and modern striving for abstraction. His work shows the effective light treatment of Parisian salon painting [de], atmospheric design devices of Art Nouveau and a stark, partly caricaturistic realism of the Old Masters.[7]

He is particularly known for his large-scale historicising mural and oil Painting. In particular, a mural cycle in the chapel of Burg Castle on the Wupper (created from 1899 to 1901) gave him the breakthrough for a whole series of further such creations. In the chapel, he depicted The Power of Christianity over the Human Spirit. 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 will draw them all to myself. The third painting shows The Little Rose Garden of the Heavenly Paradise. Other works of this kind include five murals, a seeing Justitia and four historical scenes from German court life in the large plenary hall of the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf [de] from 1913.[8] In 1902, Spatz received the Order of the Red Eagle IV. Class, awarded by Wilhelm II.[9]

Most of Spatz's large works were destroyed during the Second World War. However, the cycle in the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has survived, together with his explanations. In it, Spatz depicted scenes "from the development of German legal life". The painting Gang der Hirten zur Heiligen Familie from 1892, damaged during the war, has now been extensively restored and is in the Museum Kunstpalast.[10]

According to Friedrich Schaarschmidt, curator of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Spatz marked the beginning of an independent line, a "phantastic direction" in painting, which Schaarschmidt described as "a kind of Düsseldorf Neuromanticism". Schaarschmidt recognised a difference from the religious painting of the late Nazarenes and Eduard von Gebhardt, particularly in the "unrealistic" use of colour, which he attributed to the artistic intention of evoking psychological effects and moods. Spatz, however, strove for an exact historical representation with regard to his figures. Therefore, he conducted extensive research into sources before producing his paintings. For him, historical accuracy took precedence over artistic freedom. For many of his works, it could be proven that the persons depicted showed strong similarities to Düsseldorf personalities.

Spatz was a member of the Düsseldorf artists' association Malkasten, around 1900 on the board[11] and (at least for the first issue of 1900) also artistic advisor to the journal Die Rheinlande [de]. During the First World War, he kept a historically important diary in 21 volumes of about 10,000 pages.[12]

After his death in 1931 at the age of 59, a memorial exhibition was held in his and Wilhelm Degode's honour at the Alte Kunsthalle in early 1932.[13]

Students

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References

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  1. ^ Entry of the company G. W. Gerh. Spatz, 30 May 1862, Gustav Wilhelm Gerhard Spatz, Kaufmanns und Lotterie-Kollekteur in Düsseldorf, in Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Düsseldorf, 1862. Oeffentlicher Anzeiger. No. 48, p. 380
  2. ^ Familienbuch Euregio: Familie von Willy Spatz
  3. ^ Verzeichnisse der aus Prima und Sekunda seit der Eröffnung der Anstalt abgegangener Schüler: 1879 Wilhelm Spatz, in Festschrift zur fünfzigjährigen Gedenkfeier der am 28. Mai 1838 erfolgt Begründung des Realgymnasiums, Voß, Düsseldorf, 1888, p. 133
  4. ^ Sternstraße 71, Spatz, Gustav Gerh. Wwe. Rentnerin E (=owner), Spatz, Wilhelm, painter, in Adressbuch der Stadt Düsseldorf für das Jahr 1893, p. 636
  5. ^ Friedrich Schaarschmidt: Zur Geschichte der Düsseldorfer Kunst, insbesondere im XIX. Jahrhundert. Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf 1902, pp. 364 ff. (Numbered)
  6. ^ "Yesterday I gave notice to quit the studios which I had rented for my ladies' painting school for almost twenty-two years without interruption! And thus I give up a part of my life's activity which had become so dear to me over the years! What a youthful, cheerful and hard-working life often developed there in my ladies' studios in the studio house called the "Wunderbau"!" Diary of Willy Spatz 1914-1919, 31 January 1915 entry, Stadtarchiv Düsseldorf, 0-1-23-41.0000 (PDF (Scans))
  7. ^ [1], Website on Portal galerie-paffrath.de, retrieved 2 September 2021
  8. ^ The History of the Court from 1906 to 1933
  9. ^ Personalnachrichten: His Majesty the Emperor and King have graciously conferred, (...), on the historical painter, Professor Willy Spatz of Düsseldorf, the Order of the Red Eagle IV. Klasse, (...), in Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Düsseldorf, 1902, p. 392
  10. ^ Kunstwerk des Monats März: Willy Spatz (1861–1931) Gang der Hirten zur Heiligen Familie, 1892, at Museum Kunstpalast, retrieved 2 September 2021
  11. ^ 41st Künstlerverein Malkasten, a. Honorary members: Andreas Achenbach, Ludwig Knaus, Adolf Menzel, Oswald Achenbach; b. Board: Erdmann, Geyer, Lins, Prof. Kröner, Kohle, Preyer, Massau, Otto, Prof. Spatz in Adressbuch der Stadt Düsseldorf für das Jahr 1900, Vereine, p. 987
  12. ^ Michael Brockerhoff: Painter Willy Spatz as World War Chronicler. Article from 13 August 2014 in the Portal rp-online.de, retrieved 2 September 2021
  13. ^ Remarkable Occurrences from 1 October 1931 to 1 October 1932, in Adressbuch der Stadt Düsseldorf, 1933

Further reading

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  • Spatz, Willy. In Friedrich Heinrich von Boetticher: Malerwerke des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte. Volume II, Dresden 1898, p. 780.
  • Galerie Paffrath (ed.): Willy Spatz: Ölstudien, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen; Juni–September 1982. Ausstellungskatalog. Galerie G. Paffrath, Düsseldorf 1982.
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