Arpad Schmidhammer (1857-1921)
Arpad Schmidhammer was born in Sankt Joachimsthal (today Czech Republic) to Josef who was also an artist and Carolina (born Lechner). His grandfather was a teacher. Arpad studied in Vienna, Graz (both today's Austria) and Munich (Germany). His specialty was drawings of animals.
Arpad Schmidhammer (baptized as Arpath Emil Schmidhammer) illustrated numerous books for children and even wrote some of them. Although he is most known by his work in this field of work (books and magazines for children and youth), we should also mention his anti-clerical political caricatures and designing costumes for famous Wagner's Ring of Nibelung.
Next illustration is from the picture book Red Cap, published by Richard Scholz Verlag in 1904.
The picture from Red Riding Hood above reminded me to provide one more interesting link to learn some facts about this popular fairy tale:
http://wizzley.com/redcap/
And now for some more interesting facts about Arpad Schmidhammer:
Arpad Schmidhammer was born in Sankt Joachimsthal (today Czech Republic) to Josef who was also an artist and Carolina (born Lechner). His grandfather was a teacher. Arpad studied in Vienna, Graz (both today's Austria) and Munich (Germany). His specialty was drawings of animals.
Arpad Schmidhammer (baptized as Arpath Emil Schmidhammer) illustrated numerous books for children and even wrote some of them. Although he is most known by his work in this field of work (books and magazines for children and youth), we should also mention his anti-clerical political caricatures and designing costumes for famous Wagner's Ring of Nibelung.
Next illustration is from the picture book Red Cap, published by Richard Scholz Verlag in 1904.
The picture from Red Riding Hood above reminded me to provide one more interesting link to learn some facts about this popular fairy tale:
http://wizzley.com/redcap/
And now for some more interesting facts about Arpad Schmidhammer:
- Closest to his regular job were his illustrations for Fliegende Blatter, Jugend, and Jugendland, all being papers and magazines from Munich. His specialty was satirical cartoons and some actually think of him as the first cartoonist in Germany. Politics was his popular target but despite his criticism, he always remained a patriot.
- During the World War, he produced numerous propaganda illustrations among which several were published in the form of picture books. One, for instance, portrayed kids from different countries annoying each other. The other was about a German soldier who captured a French soldier. While he may occasionally become very serious and scary, humor mostly dominated his works. After the war was over and a League of Nations established to prevent another world war he never believed in the success of this project. History soon proved him right.
- His work for children is his most important legacy today. Apart from illustrating classic works like Red Cap above, Bierenbaum's Zapfel Kern (German retelling of Pinocchio) or Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann, he also wrote several books on his own which he also illustrated or let them illustrated by other artists.
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