FRITZ OSSWALD (Switzerland, 1878-1966). "Landscape... Lot 32

FRITZ OSSWALD (Switzerland, 1878-1966). "Landscape with a House by the River". Oil on canvas. Signed. Size: 85 x 95,5 cm; 102 x 112,5 cm (frame). Son of the sculptor Albert Osswald, Fritz Osswald spent his childhood between Zurich and Winterthur. He trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. From 1904 he was represented at the Munich Secession exhibitions, where he was very successful, selling his first works to museums. In 1913 he was invited by Ernest Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, to join the artists' colony in Darmstadt, the cradle and stronghold of the Jugendstil. Here Osswald, already well known, decorated the salons of the gentry. With a private studio at his disposal inside the castle, he feverishly painted urban views, factories on the Rhine, flower vases and large winter landscapes. At the height of his career, the Swiss artist aroused the enthusiasm of the most important German galleries: Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Berlin, Heidelberg, Dresden. A post-impressionist painter, Fritz Osswald created thousands of large winter landscapes, snowy urban views and still lifes. Thanks to his intensive collaboration with important art dealers such as Ernst Arnold and with galleries such as Heinemann, Thannhauser and Brakl, he achieved critical and public acclaim until the mid-1930s. Paintings by the Swiss artist can be seen in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, the Starnberger See Museum and the Fundaziun Capauliana in Chur (Graubünden, Switzerland).