Hermann Hirzel

Hermann Robert Catumby Hirzel ( born July 6, 1864 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, † June 7, 1939 in Berlin) was a pharmacist and a painter, engraver, printmaker and draftsman Swiss origin.

Life

He was the son of the Winterthur merchant Julius Hirzel ( 1824 -? ) And Linda Schmidt (ca. 1828-1917 ). After attending school in Geneva Hirzel an apprenticeship as a pharmacist, but then studied at the universities of Geneva and Berlin Chemie and natural sciences. In Berlin, he decided at the end of the 1880s, however, cancel his studies and to become a painter. He took courses at the Art Academy in Berlin, but was also formed self-taught with the advice of the painter Karl Hagemeister on, for which he designed a bookplate ( see Fig.) He was influenced by the natural countryside of Brandenburg, but also went in 1890 to study trips to Sicily and in the Campagna Romana.

As a special means of expression he chose the etching, whose technique he had acquired himself. In 1893 he received for his issued etching on the " International Art Exhibition " in Rome the silver medal. In the same year he moved to Berlin, where he specialized in his work again on motives of the local landscape. In 1904 he went - probably for financial reasons - to Russia to work as a cotton seller. In 1910 he returned to Berlin, where he, inter alia, as a commercial artist earned his money and took Griffelkunst.

Works

Hirzel created advertising sheets, grade envelopes, bookplates and other minor arts, including gold jewelry and enamel work. He put His special emphasis on floral ornaments of stylized images of plants. This Arts and Crafts was his main occupation in later years. Many of his etchings ( scenic Original etchings and lithographs ) are now in the copper engraving cabinets and decorative arts museums, including archived in Berlin, Breslau and Leipzig.