Heinrich Steiner

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Overview

Bridge over the stream,

Oil on canvas

60 × 80 cm

Signed and titled on verso

Provenance:

Studio of the artist, Rome

Literature:

Heinrich Steiner, Bilder eines Italiendeutschen,
Stuttgart, Zürich 1993, S. 101, Abb. 44.
Vom Stadel zum Wolkenkratzer, Architekturdarstellungen, Ausst.-Kat. Galerie Koch, Hannover 2018, S. 8f., 20f.

1911

Born on 16 October in Kaiserslautern as the son of Max Steiner-Kaiser, then director of the Kaiserlslautern municipal theatre. His father is Jewish, his mother Christian.

1915 - 1920

Zurich, where his father sets up a Viennese operetta ensemble

1922 - 1926

Attends secondary school in Hamburg

1926

Enrols at the Altona School of Arts and Crafts. Exhibits his first painting at the Altona Secession.

1927 - 1929

Apprenticeship as a stage painter at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg, and at the Städtische Oper Berlin

1929 - 1932

Stage painter at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, Munich

1932/33

Studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Karl Caspar and took part in the Abendakt, which was directed by Georg Schrimpf

1934 - 1938

lives as a freelance painter in Düsseldorf. Study trips to Paris, Colmar, Strasbourg, Amsterdam, Zurich

1938

Endangered as a half-Jew in Germany, Steiner moves to Florence. Studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence under Felice Carena and Mario Bacchelli. Bacchelli organises an exhibition for Steiner at the Circolo dei corsi per stranieri at the beginning of 1940.

1939

Steiner lives in the Pensione Bandini, Florence, where he comes into friendly contact with Curt Craemer, Karli Sohn-Rethel, Rudolf Levy, Eduard Bargheer and Heinz Battke. Rudolf Levy, a pupil of Matisse, who came to Florence at the end of 1940, had a great influence on Steiner.

1946

Honoured with the international art prize "La Colomba", Venice. The Venetian art dealer Carlo Cardazzi takes Steiner under contract.

1948

Move to Venice.

1949

In November 1949, solo exhibition at Cardazzi's Galerie del Cavallino. He meets Max Peiffer-Watenpuhl. The contract with Cardazzi is not renewed. Steiner returns to Florence.

1950

Marries Giuliana Toti in Florence. Returns to Germany. He lives and works as an art teacher at the Hermann-Lietz-Schule Schloss Buchenau (near Bad Hersfeld)

1959 - 1974

Moves to Frankfurt a. M. and teaches at the Anna-Schmidt-Schule, a public school, until his retirement in 1974

1966

Construction of the summer house in Lerici on the Gulf of La Spezia, where he spends the summer months.

1974

Returns to Italy. Lives and works in Rome and Lerici since then

2005

Stopped painting due to an eye condition

2009

Heinrich Steiner dies in Rome in February.

The architectural motif is of central importance in Heinrich Steiner's work. It is usually combined with the landscape. Steiner's oil paintings, watercolours and drawings feature architectural elements such as walls, staircases, balustrades and structures such as bridges, solitary houses and farmsteads, as well as small settlements such as in the oil painting "Bridge over the stream". Steiner, who has lived and worked in Lerici on the Gulf of Naples since 1964 and in Rome since 1974, finds inspiration for his subjects in the Mediterranean landscape. In an associative painting process, Steiner creates imaginary landscapes with architectural motifs that are inspired by the visual experience but cannot be localised topographically. Steiner combines the latter with the surrounding landscape to create a harmonious unity by aligning the shapes of the buildings with the amorphous nature and transferring their colours onto it. In this way, Steiner creates cheerful, colourful pictorial worlds full of poetry.

Heinrich Steiner

Bridge over the stream,

Vita

Awards

Exhibitions