The light of Rosenheim and Berlin
Anton Kerschbaumer began his training at the School of Applied Arts in Munich, studying under Maximilian Dasio and Julius Exter between 1901 and 1908. His early years were shaped by the technical discipline of drawing, a skill that led him to pass exams as a teacher. By 1908, he had moved to Berlin, where his path crossed with Lovis Corinth. This period in the city brought him into contact with new ways of seeing. He looked closely at the works of Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri Matisse. While these Post-Impressionist painters left their mark on his eye, he eventually moved away from the Impressionist style.
His life was marked by movement between quiet landscapes and the intensity of wartime service. During the First World War, he served in Erich Heckel's volunteer ambulance train in Ostend, Flanders. Working alongside others like Max Kaus and Otto Herbig, he found a different kind of inspiration amidst the realities of the conflict. The lithographic work of Heckel left a lasting impression on his practice. In later years, his summers were often spent near Chiemsee and Ammersee, places where the light and water became recurring subjects in his sketches and oils.
A community of ideas
In the years following the war, Kerschbaumer was part of a circle of artists in Berlin who shared an interest in the spirit of the Brücke group. This group included figures such as Max Kaus and Walter Gramatté. In 1926, he helped establish an art school in Berlin with Martin Bloch. His work during this time often focused on the quiet corners of urban life or the stillness of a room. He captured scenes like the Watergate (Schleuse) in 1919 and various street corners in Ostende.
His travels took him to Malcesine on Lake Garda, Normandy, and Paris. In 1930, he held a three-month scholarship at the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome, where he reconnected with expressionists like Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. His paintings from this era often hold a heavy, grounded quality. He worked with various media, including:
The weight of history
The later years of his life were shadowed by the political shifts in Germany. During the Nazi era, while some of his works were shown in exhibitions, others faced a much harsher fate. Two oil paintings, five watercolors, and one lithograph were confiscated as degenerate art. Some of these pieces were destroyed, and others remain lost to time.
Kerschbaumer died in Berlin-Tegel in 1931. He left behind a body of work that reflects a life spent observing the changing light on a canal at dusk or the arrangement of flowers in a vase. His paintings, such as Kanal bei Dämmerung, remain as records of his specific, focused gaze.
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