Ernst Christopher Metz, Rauschenberg Rectory, 1932, Gouache

Rauschenberg Rectory, 1932. Ernst Christopher Metz, 1892–1973, best historical illustrator.

Fine gouache, approx. 36.5 x 41.3 cm (mentioned in the 1999 catalogue raisonné on pages 33 and 34!!!)

Ernst Christopher Metz, 1892–1973, Eschwege, best historical illustrator in Hesse!

From: Kassel Wiki:

Ernst Christopher Metz was the son of Heinrich Metz, a teacher in Kassel,[1] and Marie née Schönewald, the daughter of a teacher from Melsungen. He studied at the Kassel Academy of Art from autumn 1910. His studies were interrupted by military service as a one-year volunteer in 1913/14[2], and then by the First World War, in which he served as an officer.[3] In 1918, he passed the drawing teacher's examination in Kassel. from 1919 to 1945, he was an academic drawing teacher at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-School in Eschwege, with an interruption for military service in the Second World War.[4]

In 1918, Metz married his fellow student Erika Bornemann (1894–1941), daughter of Superintendent Johannes Bornemann in Clausthal-Zellerfeld and niece of the painter Otto Ubbelohde (1867–1922) in Goßfelden near Marburg. In 1943, he married the war widow Friedel Pottgießer (1905–2004), daughter of the teacher Karl Hoffmann in Wolfsanger (1870–1950). Ernst Metz had two sons from his first marriage: Wolfgang (1919–1992, historian) and Harald (born 1928, biologist).[5]

Ernst Metz particularly admired the painters Paul Hey (Munich) and Otto Ubbelohde, without, however, orienting himself stylistically towards them.[6] The main focus of Metz's work is the "depiction of picturesque buildings and views of the region. Since the late 1920s, he has primarily dealt with historical reconstructions, in which he atmospherically depicted many characteristic and remarkable buildings or architectural ensembles of German cities in retrospect, looking back on a specific time and historical situation, with unusual precision down to the details of the architecture and contemporary clothing, using gouache. with comprehensive historical, uniform, and costume knowledge, he reconstructed buildings and life in Kassel, Eschwege, Melsungen, and other places, using contemporary illustrations and documents. Numerous pictures of historical uniforms against the backdrop of the respective garrison were also created in this way."[7] "The typical Metz paintings of the later years are watercolors in gouache, while other techniques are strongly represented only in the 1920s and 1930s"[8], including oil paintings, pen drawings, pen drawings washed in "ink style", etchings, and Woodcuts.[9]

Appreciation

Ernst Metz “was the only artist in Germany who saw his life’s work as reviving our historic city centers, which have fallen victim to today’s architects or the bombing raids, in paintings and prints. Metz left behind around a thousand paintings, now widely scattered in private collections both in Germany and abroad […], which together represent a still untapped treasure of art and cultural history and will shape future generations’ understanding of our cities of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.”[10]
Publications