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Arts and Literature

Anton Seder

Designer Anton Seder (1850-1916) from Munich became the first director of the Kunstgewerbeschule of Strasbourg. He was known as one of lead artists of the nature-inspired Jugendstil movement, and initiated the revival of decorative arts in Alsace. His drawings appear in many lithographic books.

After the War of 1870, during which many Alsatian heritage sites were destroyed, the Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen's authorities started working on reconstructing the cultural make-up of Strasbourg, encouraging the development of decorative arts in particular.

This is how Anton Seder, a trained artist from the Munich Kunstakademie and fromer lecturer in Winterthur, was named director of the brand new Kunstgewerbeschule in 1890. Already a renowned artist, Seder's works had been printed by Viennese publisher Gerlach & Schenk alongside Gustav Klimt's and Max Klinger's. One of his notable contributions was from the ornamental plates album Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe (1887). Once head of the Strasbourg school, he designed the façade decorations for the new building, which were made by ceramicist Léon Elchinger. The school, located rue de l'Académie, opened in 1892.

He organised workshop classes in ceramics, gold- and silversmithery, ironwork and woodworking and strived to bridge the gap between fine arts and crafts.

He regularly published portfolios, such as Das Tier in der Dekorativen Kunst (1896), Naturalistiche Dekorationsmalereien (1897), and Kunstgewerbliches Skizzenbuch für Metall-, Glas-Industrie und Keramik (1899). He managed, along with Friedrich Leitschuh, the publishing of the art review Das Kunstgewerbe in Elsass Lothringen, spreading out the teachings of his school as remakable examples of ornamental craftsmanship. In 1901, he published Die Kunstgewerbeschule in Strassburg im Elsass und ihre Entwicklung, a richly photo-documented history of the school.

The present collection of books and ornamental plates is the first known complete collection of Anton Seder's printed works. It gathers resources from several Strasbourg organisations: the library of the Haute École des Arts du Rhin (HEAR), the library of the Strasbourg Museums, the city's Public Records administration, and the National & Academic Library (BNU).

You can also look up works from Anton Seder in other free digital libraries:

Allegorien und Embleme: Original-Entwürfe von den hervorragendsten modernen Künstlern, sowie Nachbildungen alter Zunftzeichen und moderne Entwürfe von Zunftwappen im Charakter der Renaissance (1892) volume 1 & volume 2 are available on Phaidra, the digital library of the University of Vienna.

Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe: Darstellung der schönsten und formenreichsten Pflanzen in Natur und Styl zur praktischen Verwerthung für das gesammte Gebiet der Kunst und des Kunstgewerbes in reichem Gold- und Farbendruck (1897) first and second volume of plates can be viewed on the digital library of the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek of Düsseldorf.

All issues from Das Kunstgewerbe in Elsaß-Lothringen, the review Seder and Leitschuh published between 1900 & 1906, are available on the Heidelberg University digital library. They feature an abundant literature on arts & crafts and interior decoation.

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