Richard Seewald

Richard Seewald was a German painter and writer, born on May 4, 1889, in Arnswalde. He attended a real gymnasium in Stralsund. In 1909, at his father’s request, he began studying architecture in Munich, but soon turned to painting as a self-taught artist. His early drawings, created during his school years, were accepted by the weekly magazine Die Jugend, which led him to create caricatures for Meggendorfer Blätter and Lustige Blätter in Berlin, thus earning his livelihood. In 1911, he impulsively traveled to London to marry his fiancée, Uli.

The Modern Gallery Heinrich Thannhauser, known for showcasing works by young Munich artists, held Seewald’s first exhibition of graphic prints. Inspired by the pictorial effects of a drypoint engraving, he created his first oil painting in 1913 on the island of Rab. In November of that year, the Munich New Secession was founded, of which Seewald soon became a member, and he later joined the German Artists’ Association.

Seewald illustrated Hans Bötticher’s poetry collection Schnupftabaksdose (under the pseudonym Ringelnatz) and became a sought-after illustrator, working on projects like Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Heinrich von Kleist’s Penthesilea. He also provided illustrations for his own first book, Tiere und Landschaften. In 1919, a significant solo exhibition took place at the Munich art dealer Hans Goltz. Seewald frequently traveled to the Mediterranean region, continuing to illustrate both his own works and those of other authors, during which time his drawing style evolved towards a more tonal painting approach.

At the age of thirty-five, Richard Seewald was appointed professor at the Cologne College of Applied Arts during a stay in Positano in 1924. In 1929, he converted to Catholicism and subsequently undertook commissions for wall paintings in sacred spaces, including a choir mural in the Dominikus Böhm Church Stella Maris on Norderney. In 1931, influenced by the repressive cultural climate in Cologne, he decided to move permanently to Switzerland, settling in Ronco sopra Ascona, where he became an honorary citizen in 1939. From then on, he painted and wrote with equal intensity.

Before the rise of the Nazi regime, many German public collections had acquired Seewald’s works, particularly prints, as well as some panel paintings and watercolors. In the early years after the regime took power, Seewald was still able to exhibit in Germany. However, his art was soon labeled “degenerate,” and in 1937, a large number of his works were confiscated from public collections as part of the nationwide campaign against “degenerate art.” Most of these works were destroyed.

Seewald returned to Germany for the first time in 1948, after the end of the Nazi dictatorship. In 1951, he participated in the first exhibition of the re-established German Artists’ Association in Berlin. It took him another three years to establish himself in the cultural life of the Federal Republic of Germany. He participated in an exhibition featuring four of his gouaches depicting Tuscan motifs. In 1954, he accepted a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, but resigned four years later due to disagreements with the academy’s administration. After his wife’s death, he burned around 150 of his paintings, along with hundreds of sketches, drafts, and correspondence.

He bequeathed his sketchbooks to the Germanic National Museum (GNM) in Nuremberg. The remainder of his estate was transferred to a foundation named Fondazione Richard e Uli Seewald Ascona. Richard Seewald was laid to rest in the cemetery of Ronco sopra Ascona.