Carlos Schwabe (born Émile Martin Charles Schwabe; 21 July 1866 – 22 January 1926) was a Swiss

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

painter and printmaker.

Life

Schwabe was born in Altona,

Holstein Holstein (; ; ; ; ) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider (river), Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost States of Germany, state of Germany. Holstein once existed as the German County of Holstein (; 8 ...

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

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 The Salon de la Rose + Croix was a series of six art and music salons hosted by Joséphin Péladan in 1890s Paris. The Salon de la Rose + Croix grew out of Péladan's Mystic Order of the Rose + Croix, a cultic religious art movement that he esta ...

'' 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 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 Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

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 meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughou ...

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

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

and

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, ; ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance painter, a student of Ancient Rome, Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with Perspective (graphical), pe ...

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 complicated ...

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

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

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

's ''

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; ) 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 published in 1857, it was important in the ...

'' (1900),

Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in ...

's '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' (1892), and Albert Samain'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 Dreyfus affair. 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 spirituality, spiritual and cultural movement that arose in early modern Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts announcing to the world a new Western esotericism, esoteric order. Rosicruc ...

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:Schwabe Carlos Elysian Fields.jpg, ''Elysian Fields'', 1903 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 Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press ...

'' (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 Emigrants from the Kingdom of Prussia Immigrants to Switzerland