Kon­rad Fer­di­nand Ed­mund von Frey­hold 1878 - 1944 / de­par­tu­re and ad­ap­ta­ti­on

Anyone interested in the art of picture book illustration cannot ignore Konrad Ferdinand Edmund von Freyhold: the stylistic novelty and child-friendly approach of his picture books written between 1905 and 1908 - Animals, Sports and Games, The Rabbit Book - was revolutionary. As a painter, Freyhold, who was born in Freiburg in 1878 and died there in 1944, is largely forgotten today. After studying for just two semesters at the Karlsruhe Art Academy, Freyhold continued his self-taught training while traveling. His friendship with the artists Karl Hofer and Emil Rudolf Weiss, whom he met in Karlsruhe, would lead him to illustrate picture books. Freyhold stayed regularly in Paris until 1914. As an expert on the local art scene, he conveyed works by French painters, among others. to the German collector Karl Ernst Osthaus. The encounter with the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir was to have a lasting influence on his own work. While Freyhold took part in numerous exhibitions before the First World War, his painting career stagnated after 1918. During this time, his friendship with the Winterthur merchant Werner Reinhart intensified, who awarded him commissions and invited him to travel. His father Theodor Reinhart had already supported the young painter financially. From 1927 to 1930, Freyhold painted the auditorium of the university in Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, but his depiction of "Parnassus" was not well received. Frustrated artistically, Freyhold joined the NSDAP and made a career as a political functionary in Freiburg and Baden. In 1927 he founded the "Badische Secession" with other artists, of which he was chairman from 1933 until its forced dissolution, which he tried in vain to prevent. Our exhibition is dedicated to an elusive artist and person: Freyhold's artistic career was characterized by strong beginnings, but continued without fortune and ultimately, in political terms, by thought-provoking followership.