Werner Schramm (1898–1970) was a German painter. He was born as a son of merchants in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

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 ...

. After a classical education, he entered the School of Decorative Arts in Düsseldorf. In 1919 he began painting again after having been interrupted by the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was influenced by German Expressionism and also by the first expressions of abstract art. The discovery of the

Isenheim Altarpiece The ''Isenheim Altarpiece'' is an altarpiece sculpted and painted by, respectively, the Germans Nikolaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grünewald in 1512–1516. It is on display at the Unterlinden Museum at Colmar, Alsace, in France. It is Grünewal ...

Matthias Grünewald Matthias Grünewald ( – 31 August 1528) was a German Renaissance painter of religious works who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. His first name is also given ...

, which was temporarily exhibited at the Munich Pinacothek, was a revelation to him and he started his first attempts in

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

techniques: a well-performed drawing on a priming of chalk or plaster with a mixture of oil and yolk of an egg as paint. In 1920 he was appointed decorator at the theatre of Düsseldorf. After his marriage in 1925 to Liselotte Heckmann he lived for a year near

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

and then five years in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. During that time he journeyed many times across France. In 1929 he went to Spain. From 1931 he lived with his family in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, where he died in 1970.

Sources

* Werner Schramm, Liselotte Schramm-Heckmann, Otto Brües: ''Werner Schramm und Liselotte Schramm-Heckmann''. Ratingen 1965, ASIN: B0000BNIBW * Werner Schramm, Liselotte Schramm-Heckmann, Otto Brües: ''Werner Schramm und Liselotte Schramm-Heckmann (2nd edition)''. Ratingen 1976 * Liselotte Schramm-Heckmann: ''Werner Schramm, Liselotte Heckmann — Bühnenbilder und Figurinen 1920-1925''. 1991, * Liselotte Schramm-Heckmann: ''Jugenderinnerungen'' in Bernd Braumüller: ''Draeger — Valette, Zwei Berliner Familien und Ihre Nachkommen''. Rotenburg 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Schramm, Werner 1898 births 1970 deaths 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters