Franz Radziwill

1895 — 1983

Franz Radziwill, son of a master potter, first completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer. During the apprenticeship, however, he showed so much artistic talent that he was allowed to study architecture. At the same time, he learned to draw at night school. He found contact with the artistic circles in Fischerhude and Worpswede, but also with the Berlin art scene, where he became the youngest member of the Free Secession in 1920.

Franz Radziwill experienced two world wars as an artist, which had a decisive influence on him. He later processed traumatic war experiences in his paintings. His artistic life can be divided into three major creative phases: From his early years as an Expressionist, the German painter developed into one of the most important exponents of Magical Realism, which shaped his highly regarded main body of work. In his later years, he increasingly turned to Symbolism.