Werner Heldt (1904–1954) was a German painter.

Life

Heldt was born in Berlin on 17 November 1904. The son of a pastor, he attended a grammar school, the '' Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster''. He studied art at the School of Arts and Crafts in 1923–4, and then at the Berlin Academy until 1930. His early work consisting, mostly of townscapes and scenes of night-life, shows the influence of his friend, the much older

Heinrich Zille Rudolf Heinrich Zille (10 January 1858 – 9 August 1929) was a German illustrator, caricaturist, lithographer and photographer. Childhood and education Zille was born in Radeburg near Dresden, son of watchmaker Johann Traugott Zill (''Zille'' s ...

, with whom he used to visit the bars of suburban Berlin. By 1929, though, he had broken away from Zille's mildly satirical and rather antiquated vision of the city. In 1930 he visited Paris, where he met

Maurice Utrillo Maurice Utrillo (), born Maurice Valadon; 26 December 1883 – 5 November 1955), was a French painter of the School of Paris who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painte ...

, whose work he admired. Between 1929 and 1933 he underwent a course of psychoanalysis which prompted him to give up painting, instead making a series of drawings inspired by his dreams. He moved to

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

in 1933, but following the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

he returned to Berlin where he shared a studio with the painter

Werner Gilles Werner Gilles (29 August 1894 – 23 June 1961) was a German artist. Gilles was born in Rheydt/Rheinland (today Mönchengladbach) He found his artistic calling while at the academies of Kassel and Weimar, studying under Lyonel Feininger of the ...

and the sculptor Hermann Blumenthal. Unnerved by the political situation, Heldt produced little work during this period. He was conscripted into the military in 1940, and eventually took up painting again while a prisoner of war in

Ostfriesland East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...

in 1945. Following his release from captivity, Heldt returned to Berlin, where he painted the scenes of the devastated city which have won him his reputation. In the autumn of 1954 he went to stay with Werner Gilles on

Ischia Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to west ...

. He died there on 3 October, at the age of 49.

References

1904 births 1954 deaths 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters Artists from Berlin Prussian Academy of Arts alumni {{Germany-painter-stub