Carlos Schwabe (born Émile Martin Charles Schwabe; 21 July 1866 – 22 January 1926) was a Swiss Symbolist painter and printmaker.

Life

Schwabe was born in Altona,

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

into a merchant family. In 1870 his family moved to Switzerland, receiving Swiss citizenship in 1888. Between the years of 1882 to 1884, he studied at the École des arts industriels. After studying art in Geneva, he relocated to Paris as a young man, where he worked as a wallpaper designer, and he became acquainted with Symbolist artists, musicians (Guillaume Lekeu, Vincent d'Indy) and writers. In 1892, he was one of the painters of the famous ''

Salon de la Rose + Croix Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

'' organized by Joséphin Péladan at the Galerie Durand-Ruel. His poster for the first Salon is an important symbolic work of idealist new art. He exhibited at the Société nationale des Beaux-Arts, at the

Salon d'automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The f ...

and was present at the Exposition Universelle of 1900, receiving the Gold medal. In the years that followed his work was also shown in Munich, Zürich, Vienna, and Brussels. Schwabe received the French Légion of Honor in 1902. Schwabe's paintings typically featured mythological and

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

themes, with a very personal and idealist vision and social interest. References to the artists Albrecht Dürer and

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in orde ...

can be seen in Schwabe's work. Schwabe is known for being one of the most important symbolist book

illustrators An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complica ...

. He illustrated the novel '' Le rêve'' (1892) by

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited ...

's ''

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; en, The Flowers of Evil, italic=yes) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First publish ...

'' (1900),

Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

's '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' (1892), and

Albert Samain Albert Victor Samain (3 April 185818 August 1900) was a French poet and writer of the Symbolist school. Life and works Born in Lille, his family were Flemish and had long lived in the town or its suburbs. At the time of the poet's birth, his fat ...

's ''Jardin de l'infante'' (1908), but also texts by Haraucourt, Mallarmé, Blondel, Mendès, Lamennais, etc. His important work La Vague (The Wave), and its preparatory drawings are a testimony of the engagement of the artist during the "Affaire dreyfus". Ma%C3%AEtres_de_l'affiche_V_2_-_Pl_74_-_Carlos_Schwabe

Ma%C3%AEtres_de_l'affiche_V_2_-_Pl_74_-_Carlos_Schwabe

The most important works by Schwabe belong to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels and in private collections. Schwabe lived in France for the rest of his life and died in

Avon, Seine-et-Marne Avon () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Geography Avon and Fontainebleau, together with three other smaller communes, form an urban area of 36,713 inhabitants. The two towns sh ...

in 1926.

Work

Two distinct styles are recognized in Schwabe's art. Before 1900, Schwabe's paintings were more individual and experimental, indicating the idealism of the Symbolists; conventional, allegorical scenes from nature became more prominent in his later work. Images of women were important, sometimes representing death and suffering, other times creativity and guidance. His first wife was his model for angels and virgins, and "Death" in '' Death and the Grave Digger'' (1895) resembles her. The death of a close friend in 1894, the musician Guillaume Lekeu, when Schwabe was 28 years old, engendered his interest in representing death and the world of ideal creation. Schwabe created an important watercolor that was the model of a lithographic poster for the 1892 ''Salon de la Rose + Croix'', the first of six exhibitions organized by Joséphin Péladan that demonstrated the

Rosicrucian Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking it ...

tendencies of French Symbolism. Schwabe's poster depicted in shades of blue an initiation rite—three women ascending toward spiritual salvation—and is an exemplar of Rosicrucian art.

Gallery

File:La douleur 1893.jpg, ''La douleur'', 1893 File:Cloches du soir.jpg, ''Cloches du soir'' (''Evening bells'', 1895) File:Death and the Gravedigger - C. Schwabe.jpg, ''Death and the Gravedigger'', 1895 File:Carloz Schwabe - Vincent d'Indy's Fervaal.jpg, '' Fervaal'', 1898 File:Fleurs-du-mal spleen et ideal.jpg, ''

'', 1900 File:L'Ame du vin.jpg, ''l'Ame du vin'', 1900 File:Fleurs-du-mal mort.jpg, ''Colors of Evil'', 1900 File:La-vague.jpg, ''Wave'', 1906 File:Spleen et ideal.jpg, '' Spleen et Idéal'', 1907 File:Lotte by Carlos Schwabe - 1908.jpg, ''Lotte'', the artist's daughter, 1908

References

* Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David, (1986), ''Une autre lumière. Carlos Schwabe, l'idéalisme et la mort'' in ''L'Écrit-voir'',n° 8. * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David, (1986), ''Carlos Schwabe, illustrateur symboliste'', Bulletin du bibliophile, n° 2. * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David, (1987), ''Carlos Schwabe et le nouveau mysticisme'', in ''Un symboliste genevois : Carlos Schwabe'', exh. cat., Genève, musée d'Art et d'Histoire. * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David, (1987), ''Carlos Schwabe, illustrateur symboliste du Rêve de Zola'', Revue du Louvre et des musées de France, n° 5-6. * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David (1988), ''Guillaume Lekeu et Carlos Schwabe : "Une haute confraternité artistique"'', Revue de musicologie, t. 74, n°1, 1988, p. 53-68. * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David (1993) ''Révolte et folie visionnaire chez Carlos Schwabe : La Vague 1906-1907'', in "L'Âme au corps", exh. cat., Paris. * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David, (1994), ''Carlos Schwabe, symboliste et visionnaire'', Paris, ACR editions. * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David, (1996), ''Peinture, hystérie et opéra : les révoltées tragiques de Carlos Schwabe'', Genava, revue du musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève. * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David, (1999), ''Les Peintres de l'âme. Le symbolisme idéaliste en France'', exh. cat. Bruxelles, Paris (and 2000-2004 : Salzburg, Chemnitz, Madrid, Japan : German, Spanish and Japanese translations). * Clement, Russell T. et al. (2004). ''A Sourcebook of Gauguin's Symbolist Followers''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 865–867. . * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David (2007), ''Painters of the soul'', Tampere, Museum of Art. * Greenspan, Taube G. "Schwabe, Carlos." In ''Grove Art Online''. ''

Oxford Art Online Oxford Art Online is an Oxford University Press online gateway into art research, which was launched in 2008. It provides access to several online art reference works, including Grove Art Online (originally published in 1996 in a print version, ''T ...

'' (accessed 26 May 2008). * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David (2011) ''Séailles mécène : Schwabe, la conscience et l'exemple'', introduction to : Gabriel Séailles, "Carlos Schwab" (1914, in ''Le Génie dans l'art'', anthologie des écrits esthétiques et critiques de Gabriel Séailles, Sarah Lindford and Michela Passini, Paris, Kimé 2011. * Jumeau-Lafond, Jean-David (2017) "Carlos Schwabe" in "Mystical Symbolism. The Salons de la Rose+Croix 1892-1897", exh. cat. ,New York, Solomon Guggenheim Museum.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwabe, Carlos German Symbolist painters 19th-century German painters German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists 19th-century Swiss painters Swiss male painters 20th-century Swiss painters 1866 births 1926 deaths People from Altona, Hamburg 19th-century German male artists 19th-century Swiss male artists 20th-century Swiss male artists