Fritz-August BIMLER (1890-1966), Mountain Landscape

watercolor, gouache, paper, 40 x 50 cm,
signed l.d.: F.A. Bimler

Painter born in Zory, associated with the Upper Silesian artistic community. Educated at the School of Painting and Drawing in Katowice, around 1913 he went to Munich and studied at the local academy in the studio of Angelo Janek and Carl von Marr. He participated in World War I as a volunteer, was wounded in 1916 and continued his studies at the Munich academy after his release from the army. In 1921, he returned to Upper Silesia and settled in Königsberg (now Chorzow), where he taught art history and drawing at a humanistic secondary school. In 1922 he was commissioned to paint 45 pictures of Silesian churches. He traveled to Brazil, Italy, Palestine, Egypt, Sweden and Norway. He painted landscapes from the places he visited, as well as Silesian landscapes and motifs from the Beskids. He painted numerous portraits, including those of Wojciech Grażyński and Bishop Hlond, as well as Pope Pius XII. In 1958, as a displaced person, he moved to Munich.