Carl Schmitz-Pleis, originally Karl Schmitz (21 September 18771943) was a German painter.

Life and work

He was born in

Hennef Hennef (Sieg) () is a town in the Rhein-Sieg district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Sieg (river), Sieg, approx. south-east of Siegburg and east of Bonn. Hennef is the fourth-biggest town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis ...

. He studied at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Blinky Palermo, Ma ...

with Johann Peter Theodor Janssen,

Eduard von Gebhardt Franz Karl Eduard von Gebhardt (13 June 1838 – 3 February 1925) was a Baltic German painter of portraits and historical scenes, and a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Biography He was born to Ferdinand Theodor von Gebhardt (1803� ...

and . At first, he signed his works with his birth name, but later adopted "Carl Schmitz-Pleis" as a more distinctive artistic

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

. The "Pleis" was taken from , near

Königswinter Königswinter (; ; Low Franconian: ) is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Königswinter is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bad Godesberg, at the foot of the ...

, where his older brother Heinrich lived with his family. Carl was a frequent visitor there. In 1907 and 1908, together with , ,

Walter Ophey Walter Hugo Ophey (25 March 1882 – 11 January 1930) was a German painter and graphic designer, known for Rhenish Expressionism. He was a member of the Sonderbund group and Young Rhineland art groups. Biography Walter Hugo Ophey was born o ...

and , among others, he helped to create "Niederrhein" (Lower Rhine), a progressive artists' association.

Museum Kunstpalast The Kunstpalast, formerly Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf is an art museum in Düsseldorf. History The roots of the museum go back around 300 years. In 1932, the collection of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Academy of Art) was housed in the Kunstmus ...

Galerie Paffrath The Galerie Paffrath is an art gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany, specialising in paintings of the 19th century. Profile Galerie Paffrath specialises in 19th-century paintings, in particular works by painters of the Düsseldorf school of painting, ...

: ''Lexikon der Düsseldorfer Malerschule 1819–1918''. Vol.3: ''Nabert – Zwecker''. Munich 1998, , pg.224 In the Spring of 1910, he and several other members of the group travelled to Italy, with the goal of "capturing nature in the sunlight". From 1913 to 1928, he was a member of

Malkasten Malkasten (English: "Paintbox") is a progressive German artists' association, founded in Düsseldorf in 1848, during the German revolutions of 1848–1849, March Revolution. Since 1867, their headquarters have been in the Düsseldorf-Pempelfort, P ...

, another progressive association. He took part in numerous large art exhibitions, at the and the , as well as organizing the annual exhibitions held by Niederrhein. In his later years, he rarely left Düsseldorf; dying unmarried, childless, and apparently forgotten, in 1943. Generally, he is associated with the Düsseldorfer Malerschule. His works cover a wide range of genres, including landscapes,

still-life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...

s, and portraits. The influence of

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

is readily noticeable. In retrospect, he can be considered the most important German representative of

Neo-Impressionism Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat's most renowned masterpiece, '' A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'', marked the begin ...

and

Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

alongside Paul Baum.''Christie's Review of the Season''. 1986, p. 11. His works can be seen at the

and the in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

References

External links

More works by Schmitz-Pleis
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmitz-Pleis, Carl 1877 births 1943 deaths German painters German landscape painters German portrait painters Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni People from Hennef (Sieg)

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links