Harry Rabinger (1895–1966) was a

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

ish artist who is remembered for his portraits and

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

landscape paintings, especially those of the industrial area in the south of the country."Rabinger, Harry (Henri)", ''Luxemburger Lexikon'', Editions Guy Binsfeld, Luxembourg, 2006.

Biography

Born in the

Pfaffenthal Pfaffenthal (, ) is a quarter in central Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany ...

district of

Luxembourg City Luxembourg (; ; ), also known as Luxembourg City ( or ; ; or ), is the capital city of Luxembourg and the Communes of Luxembourg, country's most populous commune. Standing at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers in southern Luxe ...

on 25 February 1895, Rabinger started his art studies in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

but was forced to go to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

when war broke out in 1914. He completed his education by travelling widely, in particular to

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It was in 1919 that he came into contact with the south of Luxembourg as an art teacher at the ''Ecole Industrielle et Commerciale'' and at the ''Lycée des Jeunes Filles'' in

Esch-sur-Alzette Esch-sur-Alzette (, ; ; or ''Esch an der Alzig'') is a city in Luxembourg and the country's List of communes of Luxembourg by population, second-most populous commune, with a population of 36,625 inhabitants, . It lies in the south-west of the ...

. At the time, industry was expanding rapidly in the area, providing him with vivid scenes of mines, factories, railways and buildings caked in rusty red coatings.Georgette Bisdorff, "Harry Rabinger"
, ''Ons stad'', No 79, 2005. Retrieved 31 January 2011 (pdf). Although he first became a member of the

Cercle artistique de Luxembourg The Cercle artistique de Luxembourg (CAL), originally the Cercle artistique luxembourgeois, is an association founded in 1893 which brings together artists of all types with a view to supporting artistic work and art education in the Luxembourg, Gra ...

, he joined

Joseph Kutter Joseph Jean Ferdinand Kutter (1894–1941) is considered one of Luxembourg's most important painters. He was greatly influenced by the Impressionists but developed his own distinctive Expressionist style. Early life Kutter was born on 12 Dece ...

Nico Klopp Nico Klopp (1894–1930) was a Luxembourgish painter remembered above all for his post-impressionist paintings of scenes on the Moselle river where he lived. Early life Born on 18 September 1894 at Bech-Kleinmacher on the Moselle in south-eastern ...

and others as a co-founder of the Luxembourg secession movement which succeeded in promoting

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

. After exhibiting his work both in Luxembourg and Brussels, he was charged by the State to paint his monumental work "Terres Rouges" (Red Lands) for the Luxembourg pavilion at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. In 1939, together with Jean Schaak, he exhibited large decorative panels at the New York fair where he won an award for his "Ville de Luxembourg". After the war, he went through a difficult period, limiting himself to teaching. He died on 7 September 1966 at his home in

Limpertsberg Limpertsberg (, ) is a quarter in north-western Luxembourg City, in the centre of Luxembourg. , Limpertsberg had a population of about 11,521 inhabitants. Overview In the south, on the border with the main city is the Glacis, a large open air ...

Style

Rabinger's work varies from brightly coloured still lifes to startlingly realistic nudes and portraits, including his famous women with boyish hairdos. Above all, he is remembered for his landscapes of the wilds of

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

and

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

with rocks, cliffs and rugged coastlines. But he also painted the quieter villages and valleys of the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

and the

Alzette The Alzette (; ; ) is a river with a length of in France and Luxembourg. It is a right tributary of the Sauer (a tributary to the Moselle), and ultimately to the Rhine. It rises in Thil near the town Villerupt in the Meurthe-et-Moselle '' ...

and the mountains up in the Oesling. As a young artist, he was first influenced by

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

but soon developed an

somewhat

Fauvist Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...

style with intense colouring and strong contrasts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabinger, Harry People from Luxembourg City 1895 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Luxembourgian painters 20th-century male artists Male painters