Schmidt-Rottluff, Karl

Like his companions Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff started his training with the study of architecture in Dresden. In 1905 he and Kirchner, Heckel and Fritz Bleyl were among the founding members of the artists' group “Brücke”. During this period he created his first watercolours, woodcuts and lithographs. The art historian Rosa Schapire, whom he meets in 1907, became an important patron and collector of his works. She also published an oeuvre catalogue of his early prints. From 1907 to 1912 Schmidt-Rottluff created many of his works during his summer stays in Dangast on the North Sea coast. From 1910 his paintings were characterised by simpler shapes and clear compositional structures, and in 1916 he expanded his artistic work through the inclusion of sculptures. Watercolours assumed a central position in his oeuvre, with black contours as a characteristic feature, creating a particularly pronounced compositional structure. His early works were dominated by the depiction of individuals, whereas later he focused above all on landscapes and still lifes. In 1938 many of his works under public ownership were confiscated as “degenerate”, and three years later he was banned from practising his art. After the Second World War Schmidt-Rottluff was given a professorship at the College of Fine Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg.