Fritz Grossmann


Fritz Grossmann, art historian. Born 26 June 1902 in Stanislau, was an austrian-british art historian.

Biography

Fritz Grossmann was the son of a surgeon in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He studied art history at the University of Vienna under Josef Strzygowski. He also attended lectures by Julius von Schlosser, Hans Tietze, Swoboda and Heinrich Gluck. He graduated in 1927 and completed his doctorate in 1932. His thesis was a study of the High Altar in the Benedictine Scottish Monastery in Vienna Die Passions- und Marienlebenfolge im Wiener Schottenstift und ihre Stellungin der Wiener Malerei der Spätgotik. Through his close friendship with other members of the Vienna School of Art History, most notably Fritz Novotny and Hans Tietze, he became closely connected with the promotion of the work of contemporary artists in Vienna. He was close friends with artists and sculptors such as Georg Erhlich, Bettina Erhlich, Gerhart Frankl, Fritz Wotruba, Georg Merkel, Theodore Fried, Lisel Salzer and Lois Pregartbauer. These were mainly artists who were part of the Hagenbund and had connections with the Zinkenbacher Malerkolonie on the Wolfgangsee. He was employed as a lecturer in the Volkhochschule, taking part in their Art History Urania promotion programme and he also gave regular broadcasts on art history on Radio Vienna. From 1930 onwards he was the Austrian Editor of the Czech magazine for contemporary art Forum and also a contributor to Belvedere.

Move to London

In December 1938, as a result of the Anschluss, he left Vienna for London to work as a researcher for Ludwig Burchard on the Corpus Rubenianum. At this time he developed his interests in Netherlandish Art and in particular the work of Holbein and Bruegel. In 1945 he helped Anthony Blunt to catalogue the German and Netherlandish Paintings in the Royal Collection for the Exhibition The King's Pictures, which was held at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1946-7. He was also a close friend and advisor to Antoine Seilern, the Art Collector who amassed the notable Princess Gate Collection of paintings which was given to the Courtauld Gallery in 1978. In 1955 his study on Pieter Bruegel the Elder was published, which was rapidly accepted as the standard work on the artist and the following year he edited a revised translation of Max Friedländer's From Van Eyck to Bruegel for the Phaidon Press.

Manchester and Seattle

In 1960, he moved to the Manchester City Art Gallery where he became Deputy Director. In this period he mounted several notable exhibitions particularly on the work of Wenceslas Hollar and on Mannerist art. He retired in 1966 and shortly afterwards became Visiting Professor of Art History at the University of Washington in Seattle from which he finally retired in 1972. He lived for the remainder of his life in Dulwich, London
His personal art historical archive of research and documentation relating to Pieter Bruegel the Elder was in 1985 donated to the Rubenianum in Antwerp, Belgium following his death.
In 2013 the Zinkenbacher Malerkolonie Museum in St. Gilgen held an exhibition of the paintings collected by Fritz Grossmann which were associated with the Marlerkolonie and artists of the Hagenbund.

Selected works