Mommie Schwarz

Background

Schwarz was born in Zutphen, Gelderland, Netherlands, on July 28, 1876, to Leser Schwarz and Julie Winter. The family had eleven children and Mommie Schwarz was the tenth.

Education

Mommie Schwarz received his art training at the Academy of Antwerp (the present-day Royal Academy of Fine Arts), studying there between 1895 and 1897.

Career

Schwarz went to New York City in 1897, remaining there for two years. In 1903 he briefly lived in Madrid, and in 1905 he moved to Berlin because of his interest in German expressionism. In 1911 Schwarz settled with Berg in the Netherlands.

In 1915 Mommie Schwarz moved to the small town of Schoorl, where he became close friends with Leo Gestel and other painters from the Bergen School. In 1920 Schwarz and his wife moved to Amsterdam. From 1927 the couple lived not far from Sarphatipark in Amsterdam.

Schwarz belonged to the Bergen School of artists. His artworks were characterized by Cubist figuration and expressionist influences in dark shades. Schwarz was particularly known for his harbour scenes, landscapes, portraits and still lifes. Mommie Schwarz also worked as an illustrator and designed book covers and posters, for instance, he was producing illustrations for the Dutch art magazine Wendingen.

Schwarz travelled extensively with his wife, visiting Mallorca, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and Spain. After the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War, they refused to hide or to wear the Star of David.

On 12 November 1942, Schwarz and his wife were arrested by the Nazis and deported to Auschwitz, the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps, where they were killed immediately upon arrival on 19 November 1942.

Achievements

• Mommie Schwarz made a significant contribution to the world of art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among his well-known artworks are the following: View of Sarphatipark, Still Life with Flowers, Flower Still Life, etc.
  
  Schwarz's works have been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from $477 USD to $46,602 USD. Since 2000 the record price for this artist at auction has been $46,602 USD for A flower still life (recto)- A landscape (verso), which was sold at Christie's Amsterdam in 2002.
  
  Today, his paintings can be found in such museums as the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam, Museum Kranenburgh in Bergen (North Holland) and the Wieger Museum in Deurne, North Brabant.

Works

More photos

• design

  • Cover Design for Trotsky's Autobiography

• painting

  • Village Street in the Sun

  • View of Sarphatipark

  • Still Life with Flowers

  • Flower Still Life

  • Zelfportret Aan De Ezel

  • Spanish Village

  • Vrouwelijk Naakt

  • A still life with flowers and fruits and a flowering plant

  • Certosa

  • Three standing figures

  • Still life with flowers

  • A seated craftsman

  • Sardinevissers - Sardine fishermen

  • A still life with tulips in a glass vase

  • Fishermen and boats

  • Portrait of a woman

  • A still life with anemones and a marguerite in a blue vase

  • An alley

  • Still life with flowers

  • A harbour

  • Labourers unloading a boat on the Seine

  • Fruit

  • Mallorca

  • Magnolias in a vase

  • A view of a Meditteranean harbour

• poster

  • Comoedia

  • Nat-Opera

  • Een stilleven met schilderspalet

  • Kunstavond

Religion

By the late 1920s, Schwarz had cut all ties with Judaism.

Views

Mommie Schwarz was greatly influenced by such painters as Leo Gestel and Charley Toorop.

Interests

• Artists

  Leo Gestel, Charley Toorop

Connections

Schwarz met his future wife, Else Berg, in Germany in 1905. The couple married in 1920.

Father:

Leser Schwarz

Mother:

Julie Winter

Wife:

Else Berg

Else Berg (1877-1942) was a German-born Dutch artist of Jewish descent. She was associated with the Bergense School.