Fritz Grossmann

Fritz Grossmann, art historian. Born 26 June 1902 in Stanislau, (then Kingdom of Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian, Empire), now Ivano-Frankivsk in the Ukraine, died 16 November 1984, Croydon, London; Deputy Director, Manchester City Art Gallery; Professor of Art History, University of Washington, Seattle.[1]

Biography

Fritz Grossmann was the son of a Surgeon-General in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He studied art history at the University of Vienna under Josef Strzygowski. He also attended lectures by Julius von Schlosser, Hans Tietze, Swoboda and Heinrich Gluck.[2] He graduated in 1927 and completed his doctorate in 1932. His thesis was a study of the High Altar in the Benedictine Scottish Monastery in Vienna Die Passions- und Marienlebenfolge im Wiener Schottenstift und ihre Stellungin der Wiener Malerei der Spätgotik. Through his close friendship with other members of the Vienna School of Art History, most notably Fritz Novotny and Hans Tietze, he became closely connected with the promotion of the work of contemporary artists in Vienna. He was close friends with artists and sculptors such as Georg Erhlich, Bettina Erhlich, Gerhart Frankl, Fritz Wotruba, Georg Merkel, Theodore Fried, Lisel Salzer and Lois Pregartbauer. These were mainly artists who were part of the Hagenbund and had connections with the Zinkenbacher Malerkolonie on the Wolfgangsee.[3] He was employed as a lecturer in the Volkhochschule, taking part in their Art History Urania promotion programme and he also gave regular broadcasts on art history on Radio Vienna. From 1930 onwards he was the Austrian Editor of the Czech magazine for contemporary art Forum and also a contributor to Belvedere.

In December 1938, as a result of the Anschluss, he left Vienna for London to work as a researcher for Ludvig Burchard on the Corpus Rubenianum.[4][5][6] At this time he developed his interests in Netherlandish Art and in particular the work of Holbein and Bruegel. In 1945 he helped Anthony Blunt to catalogue the German and Netherlandish Paintings in the Royal Collection for the Exhibition The King’s Pictures, which was held at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1946-7. He was also a close friend and advisor to Antoine Seilern, the Art Collector who amassed the notable Princess Gate Collection of paintings which was given to the Courtauld Gallery in 1978. In 1955 his study on Pieter Bruegel the Elder was published, which was rapidly accepted as the standard work on the artist and the following year he edited a revised translation of Max Friedländer's From Van Eyck to Bruegel for the Phaidon Press.

In 1960, he moved to Manchester City Art Gallery where he became Deputy Director. In this period he mounted several notable exhibitions particularly on the work of Wenceslas Hollar(1961) and on Mannerist art (1965). He retired in 1966 and shortly afterwards became Visiting Professor of Art History at University of Washington, Seattle from which he finally retired in 1972. He lived for the remainder of his life in Dulwich, London[7][8]

In 2013 the Zinkenbacher Malerkolonie Museum in St Gilgen held an exhibition of the paintings collected by Fritz Grossmann which were associated with the Marlerkolonie and artists of the Hagenbund.[9]

Selected Works

Biographical Literature

References

  1. ↑ http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/grossmannf.html
  2. ↑ "Cuvelier", pg135.
  3. ↑ http://www.malerkolonie.at/ for details of Zinkenbacher Malerkolonie
  4. ↑ http://www.Rubenianum.be
  5. ↑ http://www.unie.ac.at/geschtegeschitet/austellungmenu for details of Art Historians connected with the Department of Art History in Vienna forced to leave at the time of the Anschluss
  6. ↑ Wendland, Ulrike. Biographisches Handbuch deutschsprachiger Kunsthistoriker I'm Exil: Leben und Werk der under den Nationalsozialismus verfolgten und vertriebenen Wissenschaftler. Munich: Saur, 1999
  7. ↑ Times Obituary December 7th 1984
  8. ↑ Gombrich E H Fritz Grossmann (obituary) Burlington Magazine, 127, June 1985
  9. ↑ Arnbom Marie-Theres et al, Bilder aus den Koffer: Die Sammlung Fritz Grossmann und die wiederentdeckung von Theodor Fried. Austellung Museum Zinkenbacher, 13 Juli bis 13 Oktober 2013. St Gilgen
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