The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (432 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
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Schinkel , Karl Friedrich
(1781–1841).
German architect, painter, and designer, active mainly in Berlin. Schinkel was the greatest German architect of the 19th cent., but until 1815, when he gained a senior appointment in the Public Works Department of Prussia (from which position he effectively redesigned Berlin), he worked mainly as a painter and stage designer. His paintings are highly
Romantic
landscapes somewhat in the spirit of
Friedrich
, although more anecdotal in detail (
Gothic Cathedral by a River
, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, 1813–14). He continued working as a stage designer until the 1830s, and in this field ranks among the greatest artists of his period. His most famous designs were for Mozart's
The Magic Flute
(1815), in which he combined the clarity and logic of his architectural style with a feeling of mystery and fantasy.
Schjerfbeck , Helène
(1862–1946).
Finnish painter. She studied in Paris in the 1880s, her teachers including
Bastien-Lepage
, and made her mark with
plein air
scenes notable for their fresh colouring. From about 1900 her health began to fail and she lived a solitary life, almost forgotten, developing a much more simplified style. Late in life she was recognized as one of the pioneers of modernism in Finland. She painted landscapes, still lifes, figure compositions, and portraits, including an outstanding series of self-portraits. Her subdued colour harmonies recall those of
Whistler
.
Schlemmer , Oskar
(1888–1943).
German painter, sculptor, stage designer, and writer on art. He was an important teacher at the
Bauhaus
(1920–9), in the metalwork, sculpture, and stage-design workshops, and later taught in Breslau and Berlin, before he was dismissed by the Nazis, who declared his work
degenerate
. Schlemmer had a mystical temperament and his ideas on art were complex. Some of his early work was influenced by
Cubism
and he showed a deep concern for pictorial structure; characteristically his paintings represent rather mechanistic human figures, seen in strictly frontal, rear, or profile attitudes set in a mysterious space (
Group of Fourteen Figures in Imaginary Architecture
, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 1930). He rejected what he considered the soullessness of pure abstraction, but he wished to submit his intuition to rational control. His cool, streamlined forms are seen also in his sculpture. Schlemmer did much work for the theatre, notably designs for the
Constructivist
Triadic Ballet
, to music by Paul Hindemith , which was performed at the Bauhaus in 1923.
Schlichter , Rudolf
.
Schlüter , Andreas
(
c.
1660–1714).
German sculptor and architect, active mainly in Berlin. He was the leading
Baroque
sculptor in northern Germany, and his masterpiece is the splendid equestrian monument to the Great Elector Friedrich-Willem (Charlottenburg Castle, Berlin, 1696–1708). He fell under a cloud when some of his architectural work collapsed, and he moved to St Petersburg, where he died soon after arriving.
Schmidt-Rottluff , Karl
(né Schmidt )
(1884–1976).
German
Expressionist
painter and graphic artist born at Rottluff near Chemnitz (he added the ‘Rottluff’ to his name in 1906). In 1905 he was one of the founders of Die
Brucke
. His style was harsher than that of the other members of the group, and it was particularly forceful in his superb woodcuts. Their abrupt manner was reflected in his paintings with their flat ungraduated planes of contrasting colours. In 1906 he stayed with
Nolde
on the island of Alsten, Norway, and in 1907 he painted with
Heckel
at Dangast on the coast north-west of Bremen. Apart from landscapes such as the ones he painted in these places, his work included portraits, figure compositions, and still lifes. In 1911, with the other members of Die Brücke, Schmidt-Rottluff moved to Berlin, where he lived for most of the rest of his life. In the 1910s and 1920s he was influenced by the stylized forms of African sculpture (
Dr Rosa Schapire
, Tate, London, 1919). Later his style became somewhat more naturalistic. His work was declared
degenerate
by the Nazis and in 1941 he was forbidden to paint. In 1947 he became a professor at the Berlin Hochschule für Bildende Künste. The Brücke-Museum in Berlin was founded on his initiative in 1967 and he gave sixty of his own works to the collection. There are good collections of his graphic work in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester.

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