4120 - Max Schwimmer, “Griffounagen” and watercolour

Max Schwimmer, “Griffounagen” and watercolour small booklet containing five facsimile drawings; on the cover, a watercolour entitled “Young Couple”, with a handwritten dedication: “Griffounagen, formerly in a run of 12 copies, This is No. 9 for Hans Engels, Christmas 1947, M. S. (Max Schwimmer)”, accompanied by “Girl and Horses”, mixed media on paper, with a handwritten attribution on the reverse: “Watercolour by Max Schwimmer” and parts of a sketch, sheet dimensions approx. 26 x 33 cm, varying states of preservation; both works from the estate of the Leipzig painter and graphic artist Hans Engels. Artist information: German painter, graphic artist and illustrator (1895, Leipzig - 1960, Leipzig), largely self-taught in art; initially studied at the Leipzig-Connewitz Teacher Training College and worked for a time as a schoolteacher in Oberseyda and Marienberg in the Ore Mountains, as well as in Lützschena near Leipzig; served as a soldier in the First World War, 1920-23: studied art history and philosophy at the University of Leipzig; produced his first artistic works; 1923-24: taught in Eythra near Leipzig; contributed to the satirical magazines *Die Aktion* and *Der Drache*; 1924-25: Study tour through Italy (including a summer course with Hans Purrmann on Ischia) and France; subsequently spent a short time in Berlin; from 1926, taught at the Leipzig School of Applied Arts, whilst also working as a press illustrator and critic for the *Leipziger Volkszeitung*; Member of the Association of German Commercial Artists; dismissed from teaching in 1933, defamed as “degenerate” and temporarily banned from working and exhibiting; subsequently turned to book illustration, in 1939, briefly called up for medical service; from September 1944, conscripted into military service as a guard at the ‘Stalag IVB’ prisoner-of-war camp in Mühlberg; in 1945, appointed Director of the Leipzig School of Applied Arts, 1946-50: Professor of Graphic Art at the State Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Trade in Leipzig, 1951-60: Professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (HBK), member of the Association of Visual Artists (VBK) of the GDR; from 1952: member of the Berlin Academy of Arts, Source: Thieme-Becker, Vollmer, Dressler, Eisold, *Artists in the GDR*, and the internet.