4063 - Fritz Beckert, Dresden - on the River Elbe

Fritz Beckert, Dresden - on the River Elbe View of the jetty on the River Elbe with the Brühl Terrace, the Hofkirche, the Hausmann Tower and the Semper Opera House in the background, Mixed media (watercolour and opaque white) on light-weight card, c. 1940, signed ‘Fritz Beckert’ lower left, framed with a passe-partout and behind glass, passe-partout dimensions approx. 33.5 x 45 cm. Artist information: born Karl Friedrich Beckert, German architectural and landscape painter (1877, Leipzig - 1962, Dresden), attended school in Plauen, studied at the Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig from 1894 to 1896, 1896-1900: further training at the Dresden Academy under Friedrich Preller the Younger; master pupil of Gotthard Kuehl; graduated from the Academy with a gold medal, in 1902 founded the artists’ group ‘Die Elbier’, which merged with the ‘Dresdner Secession’ in 1909; from 1901, regular summer stays in Franconia; study trips through Bavaria, Austria and Italy, 1905: Attempted to establish a painters’ colony with Rudolf Poeschmann and R. Müller-Ehrenberg in Kirchberg/Jagst; from 1908, private lecturer and, from 1925 to 1945, professor of architectural painting and drawing at Dresden University of Technology; submitted works to the Great German Art Exhibition at the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich from 1942 to 1944; in 1945, lost his studio and a large part of his life’s work during the destruction of Dresden; member of the Dresden Monument Council; source: Thieme-Becker, Vollmer, Dressler, the Dresden Academy register, Wikipedia and AKL.