Erich Klossowski or Kłossowski (19 December 1875 – 23 January 1949) was a German and Polish-French art historian and a painter, now primarily known as the father of the writer-philosopher- painter and actor

Pierre Klossowski Pierre Klossowski (; ; 9 August 1905 – 12 August 2001) was a French writer, translator and artist. He was the eldest son of the artists Erich Klossowski and Baladine Klossowska, and his younger brother was the painter Balthus. Life Born in Par ...

and the artist

Balthus Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (February 29, 1908 – February 18, 2001), known as Balthus, was a Polish-French modern artist. He is known for his erotically charged images of pubescent girls, but also for the refined, dreamlike quality of his image ...

. He was born in

Ragnit Neman (russian: Не́ман; german: Ragnit; lt, Ragainė; pl, Ragneta), is a town and the administrative center of Nemansky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located in the historic region of Lithuania Minor, on the steep southern bank ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. He came from a family which belonged to Polish nobility (drobna

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...

), bearing the Rola coat-of-arms and living in the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n part of today's Poland. His son Balthus added "de Rola" to his family name. Erich Klossowski wrote (in German) one of the early monographs on

Honoré Daumier Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second N ...

, first published in Munich in 1908 and again in 1914. He married the artist

Baladine Klossowska Baladine Klossowska or Kłossowska (21 October 1886 — 11 September 1969) was a German painter. Originating from an artistic Jewish family with roots in Lithuania, she moved from Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) to Paris, France, at the t ...

, whom

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

called "Merline." Later, the couple moved to Paris. He died in

Sanary-sur-Mer Sanary-sur-Mer (, literally ''Sanary on Sea''; oc, Sant Nari), popularly known as Sanary, is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Southeastern France. In 2018, it had a population of 16,696. Sanary-sur-Mer is ...

on 23 January 1949.

Works

*La collection Cheramy; catalogue raisonné précédé d'études sur les maîtres principaux de la collection, par J. Meier-Graefe et E. Klossowski; illustré de 127 héliotypies et de 2 héliogravures hors texte. Munich, R. Piper et Cie, 1908 (Contents Les peintres anglais et Constable, par J. Meier-Graefe.—Eugène Delacroix, par E. Klossowski.—La collection Cheramy, par J. Meier-Graefe.—Catalogue des tableaux anciens.—Catalogue des tableaux de l'école anglaise.—Catalogue des tableaux de l'école française)

References

*Honoré Daumier, ''Erich Klossowski'', Munich: R. Piper, 1923 1875 births 1949 deaths German art historians Polish art historians French art historians German artists 19th-century Polish painters 19th-century German male artists 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century French male artists 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 19th-century Polish nobility French male non-fiction writers German male non-fiction writers Polish male painters 19th-century French male artists 20th-century Polish nobility {{France-art-historian-stub