Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976, German) was a founder of the German Expressionist group Die Brücke (the Bridge) in 1905 and was a friend of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
He took the name Rottluff from the German district where he was born and began to use it in 1906. Die Brücke was dissolved right before WWI in 1913. Schmidt-Rottluff served in the German army on the Eastern front from 1915-18, afterwards returning to Berlin. Expressionism, which was highly regarded prior to WWII, was termed “degenerate art” by the Nazis. Honors that Schmidt-Rottluff had earned after WWI were taken away by the Nazis, and he was thrown out of the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1933. By 1941, he had been expelled from the painters guild and had also been forbidden to continue his painting.
After WWII, he was appointed professor at the University of Arts in Berlin, and in 1967 he was able to open the Brücke Museum which holds the works of the group.
Schmidt-Rottluff produced 300 woodcuts, 105 lithographs, 70 etchings as well as 78 commercial prints during his lifetime.
His woodcuts of cats are reminiscent of the Expressionist style of Gerhard Marcks’ and Franz Marc’s .
Schmidt-Rottluff’s works have been sold for millions at international auctions.
Die Katze (vor Futterschüssel), 1913
Katzen, 1913
Two Cats
Drei Katzen
Cats, 1915
Madchen mit Katze (Girl with Cat), drypoint, 1920
Two Black Cats, 1914
Katzen II, 1914
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