Carl Friedrich Felber, a colleague from Dachau.

Carl Friedrich Felber

(1880 Wädenswil (Sw.) -1932 Dachau)

Swiss painter and etcher.

In last posting we met artist Carl Felber. He arrived in Dachau, to stay, with his wife in 1901 some years before Carl Thiemann and Carl Olof Petersen whom with I started this series of postings. Felber before studied in the Karlsruhe “Gewerbeschule” (Arts and Crafts) and also at the renowned Academie Julian in Paris before settling in Dachau and continuing under painter-teacher Alfred Hölzel (1853-1934) and his New-Dachau School of painting.

To begin with I found this etching of Notre Dame seen from from Quay de la Tournelle (see the following postings on one of my favourite Seine/Paris views in the Linosaurus here*) that I seem to have missed completely before.  

What drew my attention to Felber, researching Carl Thiemann in Dachau, was the fierce contrast between his oil paintings, mostly of his native Lake Zürich province he frequently returned to, often depicting the seasons and the moon-lit etchings he made of the Dachau moors stretching al the way to the Alps in the South. 

Bright and gay paintings of Swiss country side and lakes and the gloomy (hound of the Baskervilles-like) twilight aquatint etchings of the Dachau moors.

The “Moosschwaige”, an idyllic dwelling in the moors and situated along the Amper river under age-old poplars was locally nicknamed “Motiv no.1” (number one motif) explaining its appearance on numerous works of art. Painters, it was said, often queued up here with parasols, easels, paint and canvases.

One painting I found by Felber of the moors (above) with it’s birches and also a proof he too travelled, like Carl Thiemann, to the Adriatic coast and the Venice lagoon recognizing the characteristic sails of the local fishing boats in the village  of Chioggia situated just South of Venice in the etching below (right).

Besides a hoard of international artists visiting the Italian Mediteranian and Adriatic coast here we also meet Thiemann and his student, the late-flowering, very neglected and definitely one of my favorite printmakers Eleonore Doelter (1855-1937) from Graz (Sw.) with one of her Chioggia fishing boats prints. 

Her interesting life story and many of her woodblock prints will be told and shown in next posting.

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use.