Hermann Obrist (23 May 1862 at Kilchberg (near

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

– 26 February 1927,

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 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) was a Swiss

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

of the

Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...

and

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

movement. He studied Botany and History in his youth; the influence of those subjects is detected in his later work in the field of applied arts. As a teacher, Hermann Obrist exerted a seminal influence on the rise and subsequent development of Jugendstil in Germany.

Biography

Hermann Obrist was the son of Doctor Carl Kaspar Obrist, of Zurich, and Alice Jane Grant Duff, sister of the British politician and statesman Mountstuart Grant Duff. He studied natural sciences and medicine in Heidelberg, and made several trips during which he had visions that determined his artistic vocation. After deciding in 1887 to follow this path, he enrolled at the School of Applied Arts in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

to study art techniques. He received an award for his ceramics and furniture at the Paris Exposition of 1889. In 1890, he entered the sculpture class at the

Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

in Paris. The following year, he moved to Berlin where he earned his living mainly as a journalist for the cultural pages. In 1892, the sale of a fountain model gave him the means to move to Florence where he opened with Berthe Ruchet, an embroidery workshop, which he moved to Munich in 1895. Its ornamental embroideries and sculptures experienced growing success in Germany. In 1902 Obrist and Wilhelm von Debschitz co-founded a design school in Munich, Debschitz School (1902–1914). Students of his included Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack, who also studied at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

.(fr
Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, Herman
/ref> He then engaged in an intense activity as author and speaker and spoke of relations with other artists such as Wassily Kandinsky. Obrist left the Debschitz School in 1904. Obrist commissioned his friend

August Endell August Endell (April 12, 1871 – April 13, 1925) was a designer, writer, teacher, and German architect. He was one of the founders of the Jugendstil movement, the German counterpart of Art Nouveau. His first marriage was with Baroness Elsa, Els ...

to design his studio in

, built in 1897 and destroyed in 1944, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Obrist's works included fountains and funerary monuments. He often used concrete for his works. In addition to being a sculptor he was also a textile artist. Obrist's most famous and influential work was the design for an 1892 embroidered wall hanging called "Cyclamen". It featured a series of elegant, looping curves of cyclamen flowers, described as whiplash curves, or ''Peitschenhieb'' in German, and became a seminal work of the Art Nouveau movement.

Literature

* ''Hermann Obrist. Sculptur/Space/Abstraction around 1900,'' exhib. cat. Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München / Henry Moore Institute Leeds, ed. by Eva Afuhs and Andreas Strobl, Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess 2009. ISBN 9783858812391

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrist, Hermann Art Nouveau sculptors 1862 births 1927 deaths Swiss sculptors Swiss people of British descent Swiss emigrants Immigrants to the German Empire People from Horgen District Académie Julian alumni 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists 19th-century German sculptors