Fedor Alexis Flinzer (4 April 1832 in

Reichenbach im Vogtland Reichenbach im Vogtland is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district of Saxony in eastern Germany. With a population of 20,108, it is the second-largest town in the Vogtlandkreis after Plauen. It is located close to the A72 between Plauen (at c. 18& ...

– 14 June 1911 in Leipzig) was an author, educator and one of the greatest

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

illustrators of the

Gründerzeit (; "founders' period") was the economic phase in 19th-century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. In Central Europe, the age of industrialisation had been taking place since the 1840s. That period is not precisel ...

, who was called Raphael of Cats.

Early life

Since 1849 Flinzer visited the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts ( German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institution is the product ...

. His teachers were i.a.

Adrian Ludwig Richter Adrian Ludwig Richter (September 28, 1803June 19, 1884) was a German painter and etcher, who was strongly influenced by Erhard and Chodowiecki. He was a representative of both Romanticism and Biedermeier styles. He was the most popular, and ...

and

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (26 March 1794 – 24 May 1872) () was a German painter, chiefly of Biblical subjects. As a young man he associated with the painters of the Nazarene movement who revived the florid Renaissance style in religious ar ...

. From 1859 he held a position as an art teacher in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany ...

, where he also was one of the founders of the ''Kunsthütte'' (art cabin) and a member of the Masonic Lodge ''Zur Harmonie'' (to the harmony). In 1862 Flinzer married Marie Wolfram, a niece of the composer Richard Wagner.

Art teacher and municipal inspector of art education in Leipzig

1876 – shortly after he took office as a municipal inspector of

art education Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practi ...

and after the beginning of his work as an art teacher at the Petrischule in Leipzig – Flinzer summarized his accumulated practical knowledge in his textbook called ''Lehrbuch des Zeichenunterrichts'' (Bielefeld/Leipzig 1876). This work made him known also in other European countries and in

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Because of his textbook Flinzer was referred as a forerunner of the so-called ''Kunsterziehungsbewegung'' (Art education movement), part of the

Progressive education Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''pr ...

movement. Flinzer joined issues with the leading representatives of this movement. In consequence of the ''Kunsterziehungsbewegung'' his influence waned.

Artist

Rooted in the art of

Biedermeier The ''Biedermeier'' period was an era in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities. It began with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in ...

and Romanticism, Flinzer later created works with clear traces of

Historicism Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely ...

and with hints of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

. His artistic preference was for the animal world, his passion were

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s. This was the reason for his nicknames ''Katzen-Flinzer'' (Cat Flinzer) or Saxon Raphael of Cats. Characteristic for Flinzer's art is the humanized and satirical depiction of animals, partly in the style of

Wilhelm von Kaulbach Wilhelm von Kaulbach (15 October 18057 April 1874) was a German painter, noted mainly as a muralist, but also as a book illustrator. His murals decorate buildings in Munich. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biography ...

and Grandville. In Flinzer's early years oil paintings and frescos emerged such as for the ''Webschule'' (weaving school) in Chemnitz. Examples for his commercial art work are the ''Cat'', a world-famous brand for Hoffmann's Stärkefabriken in

Bad Salzuflen Bad Salzuflen is a town and thermal spa resort in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. At the end of 2013, it had 52,121 inhabitants. Geography Bad Salzuflen lies on the eastern edge of the Ravensberg Basin, at the confluence ...

, and designs for toys of the Dresdner Werkstätten. Flinzer also illustrated oval Playing cards. Apart from this the illustrator Flinzer worked for an adult audience, as in the family magazines

Die Gartenlaube ''Die Gartenlaube – Illustriertes Familienblatt'' (; ) was the first successful mass-circulation German newspaper and a forerunner of all modern magazines.Sylvia Palatschek: ''Popular Historiographies in the 19th and 20th Centuries'' (Oxford: ...

and ''Daheim''. Over and above, illustrations for hundreds of children, youth and picture books came into being. Flinzer's main work is the

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

''König Nobel'' (1886), a continuation of the famous

Reynard the Fox Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ages, ...

published in collaboration with the German author Julius Lohmeyer (1834–1903). Other writers, with whom Flinzer worked, are Frida Schanz (1859–1944), Victor Blüthgen (1844–1920), Georg Christian Dieffenbach, Johannes Trojan (1837–1915), Edwin Bormann (1851–1912) and Georg Bötticher, the father of

Joachim Ringelnatz Joachim Ringelnatz is the pen name of the German author and painter Hans Bötticher (7 August 1883, Wurzen, Saxony – 17 November 1934, Berlin). His pen name ''Ringelnatz'' is usually explained as a dialect expression for an animal, possibly ...

. Finally, Flinzer's contributions to the influential youth magazine ''Deutsche Jugend'' have to be mentioned; for example, he illustrated the first edition of Theodor Storm's story ''Lena Wies'' for this periodical. Further, Flinzer contributed to a well-known British publication for young people called '' Aunt Judy's Magazine''. Flinzer was a member of the Leipzig artist association ''Leoniden''. Among his pupils were the

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

Hans Domizlaff (1892–1971), the

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...

(1857–1929), the sculptor (1887–1950) as well as the artist and

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

agent (1891–1990).

Aftermath

Inspired by a picture-book illustration of Flinzer, the Austrian artist Christian Ludwig Attersee created his provocative work ''Kinderzimmertriptychon'' (Nursery Triptych; dated 1971). In 1989

Nayland Blake Nayland is a village and former civil parish in the Stour Valley on the Suffolk side of the border between Suffolk and Essex in England. In 2011 the built-up area had a population of 938. In 1881 the civil parish had a population of 901. His ...

combined a drawing by Flinzer from the ''Deutsche Jugend'' (1973, volume 2, page 186) with a phrase he wrote and laid out in type. This work is, without any hint on Flinzer's authorship, in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art today.

Memorial and medal

Flinzer's grave was located in the New St. John's Cemetery in Leipzig. In 1914 the sculptor Johannes Hartmann (1869–1952) completed his Fedor Flinzer monument for this grave. The medailleur

Adolf Lehnert Adolf Lehnert (20 July 1862 – 6 January 1948) was a Leipzig sculptor and medal designer. Life Family Franz Robert Adolf Lehnert was born in Leipzig, the second of his parents' twelve recorded children. His father, also called Adolf Leh ...

(1862–1948) designed a medal in Flinzer's honor.

Works (selection)

* ''Frau Kätzchen'', Chemnitz 1870 (with Emma Hilgenfeld) * ''Der Froschmäusekrieg'' ased_on_the_Greek_Batrachomyomachia.html" ;"title="Batrachomyomachia.html" ;"title="ased on the Greek Batrachomyomachia">ased on the Greek Batrachomyomachia">Batrachomyomachia.html" ;"title="ased on the Greek Batrachomyomachia">ased on the Greek Batrachomyomachia Frankfurt am Main 1878 (with Victor Blüthgen; modified reprint 1994) * ''Reineke Fuchs (Freie Nachdichtung des niederdeutschen Reinke de Vos.)'', Glogau 1881 (with Julius Lohmeyer and Edwin Bormann) * ''Jugendbrunnen'', Berlin 1883 (reprint 1990) * Contribution to ''The feathers & fur picture book'', London & New York 1884 * ''Poquito á poco'', Barcelona 1885 (with Anna Herding) * ''Glückliche Kinderzeit'', Bremen 1885 (with Georg Christian Dieffenbach; modified reprint 1989) * ''By little and little or first English lesson-book for children from five to ten years of age'', Breslau 1885 (with A. Herding) * ''Nuevas fábulas'', Barcelona 1886 (with Felipe Jacinto Sala) * ''Tommy Murr's diary'', London ca. 1886 * ''König Nobel'', Breslau 1886 (with Julius Lohmeyer; modified reprint 1979) * Reviews in ''Jahresberichte über das höhere Schulwesen'', Berlin 1886 ff. (editor Conrad Rethwisch) * ''Der Thierstruwwelpeter'', Breslau 1887 (with Julius Lohmeyer) * ''Des Kindes Wunderhorn'', Breslau 1889 * ''Struwwelpeter der Jüngere'', Stuttgart 1891 (with Johannes Trojan; English edition: ''Struwwelpeter junior'') * ''Eine Tierschule in Bildern'', Breslau 1891 (with Victor Blüthgen; modified reprint 1979) * ''Wie die Tiere Soldaten werden wollten'', Leipzig 1892 (with Georg Bötticher; modified reprint 1979) * ''Der Tanz'', Leipzig 1893 * Contribution to Juliana Horatia Ewing, ''Verses for Children and Songs for Music'', London 1895

Exhibitions (selection)

* 2003/2004 Troisdorf, Bilderbuchmuseum * 2004 Dresden, Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst * 2004

, Neuberin-Museum * 2004/2005

Bad Pyrmont Bad Pyrmont (, also: ; West Low German: ) is a town in the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont, in Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population close to 19,000. It is located on the river Emmer, about west of the Weser. Bad Pyrmont is a popular spa resor ...

, Museum im Schloss * 2005

, Stadt- & Bädermuseum

Secondary literature (selection)

* ''Enciclopedia Universal Ilutrada Europeo-Americana'', Tomo XXIV, Madrid 1924, 83 * Fedor Bochow, Volker Ladenthin, Maria Linsmann: ''Kinder, Katzen, Kunst. Der Bilderbuchkünstler Fedor Alexis Flinzer (1832–1911).'' Burg Wissem – Bilderbuchmuseum, Troisdorf 2003, * Fedor Bochow: ''Flinzer, Fedor Alexis'', in: ''Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker'', Bd. 41, München/Leipzig 2004, 254–256 * Fedor Bochow: ''Flinzer, Fedor'', in: ''Sächsische Biografie. Herausgegeben vom Institut für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde'', bearb. von Martina Schattkowsky

Notes

External links

* * *
Fedor Flinzer Bilderbuchwelt

Objects by Fedor Flinzer in OPAL (Online-Portal digitalisierter Kulturgüter in Niedersachsen)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flinzer, Fedor People from Reichenbach im Vogtland People from Chemnitz Artists from Leipzig 1832 births 1911 deaths German satirists 19th-century German educators German illustrators 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists 19th-century German writers 20th-century German non-fiction writers 19th-century German male writers 20th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers