
Baron Lothar von Seebach (or Lothaire de Seebach; 26 March 1853 – 23 September 1930) was an
Alsatian painter, designer, watercolorist and engraver.
Biography
He was born in Fessenbach, now part of
Offenburg
Offenburg ("open borough" - coat of arms showing open gates; Low Alemmanic: ''Offäburg'') is a city located in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With nearly 60,000 inhabitants (2019), it is the largest city and the administrative capital ...
, and raised in
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
, where his father was a garrison officer. In 1875, after completing his studies at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe under
Ferdinand Keller Ferdinand Keller may refer to:
* Ferdinand Keller (archaeologist) (1800–1881), Swiss archaeologist and prehistorian
* Ferdinand Keller (footballer)
Ferdinand Keller (born 30 July 1946 in Munich) is a German former football player. He spent fi ...
, he rejoined his family in
Strasbourg, where they had lived since the end of the
Franco-Prussian War.
Like many other painters before him, he set up his studio in the 14th Century Tour de l'Hôpital. Over the next twenty-five years, he made several study trips to England, Berlin and Paris, where he was influenced by the
Fauvists
Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' ( French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values reta ...
. A fiercely independent man who led a simple life, he turned down offers of professorships in Karlsruhe and Strasbourg.
Seebach became a French citizen after World War I, but left Alsace in 1921 as the result of some professional conflicts.
He lived briefly at
Lake Constance
Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lak ...
and
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
, then went back to Fessenbach to live with his brother. Ultimately, he returned to Strasbourg where he became renowned for his portrayals of the Old City and its inhabitants, and where he died in 1930.
Seebach was a member of the artistic community known as the "", named after a village in the commune of
Bœrsch in the
Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsà ss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...
; a group that included ,
Léon Hornecker,
Anselme Laugel
Marie Anselme Victor Henri Laugel (3 April 1851, Strasbourg - 29 July 1928, Bœrsch) was a French- Alsatian author and politician.
Biography
His father, François Joseph Victor Laugel (1817-1885), a locksmith, served on the Strasbourg City Cou ...
,
Alfred Marzolff, ,
Joseph Sattler
Joseph Kaspar Sattler (20 July 1867, Schrobenhausen - 12 May 1931, Munich) was a German painter, bookplate artist and Art Nouveau illustrator. He is best remembered for his work that appeared in the magazine '' Pan''. ,
Émile Schneider,
Léo Schnug and
Charles Spindler
Charles Spindler (11 March 1865 in Bœrsch – 3 March 1938 in Bœrsch) was an Alsatian painter, marquetry inlayer, writer and photographer. He was also a supporter of Alsatian regionalism and founded several institutions for the promotion of Al ...
. A street in Robertsau, a suburb to the north of Strasbourg, has been named for him.
[« Un nom, une rue : Lothaire de Seebach, un grand peintre strasbourgeois », ''Dernières nouvelles d'Alsace'', 22 October 2008]
Selected paintings
Lothar Von Seebach, La rue de la Douane à Strasbourg, effet de pluie.jpg, La Rue de la Douane in the Rain (1895)
Lothar von Seebach-Femme à son balcon.jpg, "Plein Air", a Woman on Her Balcony (1905)
Seebach, Portrait d'Elsa Koeberlé (3).jpg, Portrait of the poet Elsa Koeberlé; the daughter of Eugène Koeberlé (1898)
Lothar von Seebach, Adam et Eve (vers 1910).jpg, Adam and Eve (c. 1910)
Hans Pfitzner par Lothar von Seebach (1).JPG, Portrait of Hans Pfitzner
Hans Erich Pfitzner (5 May 1869 – 22 May 1949) was a German composer, conductor and polemicist who was a self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera '' Palestrina'' (1917), loosely based on the life of the ...
(1910)
Lothar von Seebach, Portrait d'Eugénie.jpg, Young woman by a river (1920)
References
Further reading
*''Lothar von Seebach 1853-1930'', B. et K. Offsetdruck, Ottersweier, 1996, 127 p. (exhibition at
Gengenbach
Gengenbach (; gsw, label=Low Alemannic, Gängäbach) is a town in the district of Ortenau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and a popular tourist destination on the western edge of the Black Forest, with about 11,000 inhabitants.
Gengenbach is well k ...
in 1996)
* Hélène Braeuner (et al.), ''Les peintres et l'Alsace : autour de l'Impressionnisme'', La Renaissance du Livre, Tournai, 2003, 190 p.
* Nicolas Mengus, ''Lothar von Seebach'', in ''Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne'', Fédération des sociétés d'histoire et d'archéologie d'Alsace, Strasbourg, 2000, vol. 35, p. 3611-3612
* ''Lothaire de Seebach'', in ''Strasbourg 1900 : naissance d'une capitale'' (seminar, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, 1–4 December 1999), Somogy, Paris ; Musées de Strasbourg, 2000, p. 115
*
Gilles Pudlowski, ''Lothar von Seebach'', in ''Dictionnaire amoureux de l'Alsace'', Plon, Paris, 2010 p. 632-635
* Brigitte Wilke, ''Les travaux et les jours : Lothar von Seebach, peintre de l'Alsace 1900'', Nuée bleue, Strasbourg, 2003, 112 p.
External links
Friends of Lothar von Seebach website(In German and French)
ArtNet: More paintings by Seebach''Lothar von Seebach (1853-1930, une vie, une œuvre. Redécouverte d'un artiste strasbourgeois'' (brochure from the exhibition at the la Maison de la Région de Strasbourg in 2012)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seebach, Lothar von
1853 births
1930 deaths
People from Offenburg
People from the Grand Duchy of Baden
19th-century German painters
19th-century German male artists
German male painters
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
Alsatian people