Alfred Schmidt (1876–1956) – Portrait of the Concert Singer Caroline Naase
Portrait of a woman, oil painting from the early 1900s.
COD: QR08
oil on canvas, circa 1920
cm 60 x 47 (23.6 x 18.5 in) – unframed
cm 78 x 65 (30.7 x 25.6 in) – framed
Signed center right: Alf Schmidt.
Alfred Schmidt
1876 Dresden – 1956 Gräfelfing
An Impressionist at Lake Chiemsee
Female figures walking through shimmering air, finding pleasure in the warm, golden tones of summer and in the sparkling grey-silver surface of the lake, correspond to the characteristic subject matter of Schmidt, the native-born artist. One inevitably thinks of the Impressionist Christian Landenberger (1862–1927), a close friend of Schmidt, who painted canvas after canvas at Lake Ammersee. Yet Schmidt appears “softer, gentler, and more narrative, because he often elaborates on how nature and the human body merge to create a small idyllic genre scene.”
His art represents a commitment to plein air painting and openly displays its Impressionist impulse. The originally anecdotal aspects of his painting, which he developed during his studies at the Karlsruhe Academy between 1886 and 1893, were gradually set aside both through a one-year study stay in Paris and Brittany in 1889 and through the influence of Landenberger and Swabian landscape painting. From this point onward, artistic development is barely perceptible. Schmidt had found his personal style and remained faithful to it.
At the end of 1899, Schmidt arrived in the Swabian capital from Karlsruhe as part of the circle surrounding Leopold Graf von Kalckreuth (1855–1922), who was appointed to the Stuttgart Academy together with Carlos Grethe (1864–1913) and Robert Poetzelberger (1856–1930). Together they founded the Stuttgart Artists’ Association, of which Schmidt remained a member for forty years, and he also ran a painting school for women until his appointment as full professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts in 1918.
During the summer months, Schmidt was drawn to the countryside. He first painted in Diessen am Ammersee. From 1920 onward, he discovered Lake Chiemsee and settled on a farm in Gollenshausen. In the later stages of his life, the “Bavarian Sea” became the central focus of his artistic work. He was among the first to own an outboard motor, which he used to roar across the lake. He was also known as “Violet Schmidt” because of his remarkable ability to convey the fading of the landscape into violet-blue hues. In this way, summer air, water reflections, cloudy skies, and figurative motifs merged into a harmonious Impressionist dance of color, creating a concentrated atmosphere that Lake Chiemsee is able to stage in countless variations.
