On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of the Tyrolean genre painter Mathias Schmid, a team of experts led by the art historian Prof. Joseph Imorde published the book “Genre Reproduction – Mathias Schmid and the visual culture around 1900”. This shows the extent to which Mathias Schmid became well known as a reproduction artist. It also turned out to be a lucrative source of income.
LAKE/ISCHGL. (lisie). Mathias Schmid, born in See in 1835 and died in Munich in 1923, was one of the best-known academic genre painters of his time and attracted attention with his works critical of the church and society. Unlike his friend and companion Franz von Defregger. The art historian Joseph Imorde, together with the team of authors consisting of Peter Scholz, Andreas Zeising and Lars Zieke, was commissioned to write a book that deals with the topic of genre reproduction. This work was preceded by a workshop held in 2019. “Defregger was very successful and didn’t take any risks, whereas Schmid took a risk,” says the author, alluding to Schmid’s critical streak. In other words, while Defregger was good and conformist, Schmid was also critical of society and the church, but only in phases, as Joseph Imorde and Peter Scholz noted.
Famous for reproduction prints
The latest work “Genre Reproduction – Mathias Schmid and the visual culture around 1900” deals with the phase in which Mathias Schmid became famous with his genre motifs of Tyrolean folk life, which were widely distributed as reproduction prints. This existence as a reproduction artist also seemed to be lucrative – so Schmid was able to afford villas in the noble Munich Nymphenburger Straße. Added to this were the sale of image rights and contracts that Schmid concluded with leading German publishers. These genre reproductions appeared in major newspapers, such as the “Gartenlaube”, a leading German family magazine around 1900 with a circulation of up to 350,000 copies. “Schmid earned more with it than with his oil paintings,” art historian Joseph Imorde was also convinced at a video conference in which the book was presented and also mentioned that this was the beginning of image rights trading. “With the sale of his pictures to the publishers, the artist Mathias Schmid, who is important for Tyrol, has contributed to the creation of a new value chain,” analyzed another author of the book, Peter Scholz. The publication is particularly pleasing to Erwin Cimarolli, who described it as a “completely new and very valuable research contribution to the artistic personality of Mathias Schmid”.
Program items in the commemoration year
Erwin Cimarolli from Ischgl opened the Mathias Schmid Museum in his Chalet Cima in Ischgl back in 1999, where the life and work of Mathias Schmid has been impressively documented ever since. At the start of the commemorative year, a special post office was set up – special edition stamps were available for purchase. On January 22, a 35-minute documentary by Julian Pintarelli and Helmut Wenzel also premiered. Furthermore, the Landeck district museum association is dedicating the main exhibition at Landeck Castle to the artist personality Mathias Schmid this year, starting at the end of April 2023. The Schattenburg Museum in Feldkirch is currently preparing a summer exhibition entitled “Mathias Schmid – Artistic Traces in Feldkirch”. The vernissage is planned for Friday, June 30th, in the treasury of the Schattenburg.
