signed with initials and dated ‘1915’
watercolour and bodycolour, fragmentary watermark ‘G’
29.5 x 21 cm

As is evident from this group of six drawings, Edmund Steppes drew inspiration
primarily from two sources: nature and the works of German artists from the 14th-16th
centuries, as well as from more modern artists. The following sheets beautifully illustrate
these influences — from the almost scientific, yet still poetically rendered Bittersweet
Nightshade, to a finely observed mountainous landscape; and from the drapery on a
church pew, which reveals Albrecht Dürer’s influence, to the gnarled tree that recalls the
landscape drawings of Vincent van Gogh.

Edmund Steppes was born in 1873 in Burghausen in Upper Bavaria, but moved to
Munich along with his family in 1882. In 1893 he enrolled at the Akademie der Bildenden
Künste [1], but he left the academy before finishing his studies (This may have been due to
the resentment his success provoked among students and professors, after he exhibited
his work at the Munich Kunstverein- an honour typically reserved for academy students
who had been nominated as Meisterschüler). Despite leaving the academy prematurely,
Steppes quickly gained success as an independent artist. He exhibited at the Munich
Secession from 1897 onwards and his work was sought-after by both private clients
as well as by German institutions. That the German Old Masters were a key source of
inspiration for Steppes is confirmed in his 1907 pamphlet Die deutsche Malerei, in which
he advocated for a return to the artistic principles of Old German and Old Netherlandish
painters. He emphasized that the artists of the 14th and 15th centuries embodied the true
‘essence’ of German art.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Steppes exhibited at the Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung.
In 1943, he was awarded the Goethe Medal for Art and Science by Hitler, and the following
year his name was included on the so-called Gottbegnadeten-Liste- a list of artists, writers,
actors, composers, and musicians deemed essential to German culture and thus exempt
from military service in the final stages of the war. In January 1945 Steppes’ studio was
destroyed by an Allied bomb, which led to the loss of numerous drawings and around
forty paintings. After the war Steppes moved to Tuttlingen and continued to work and
exhibiting his work there. For his 90th birthday, in 1963, a retrospective exhibition was
held in Tuttlingen and long after the artist’s death, another retrospective exhibition which
included paintings, drawings and etchings was mounted at the Staatliche Kunsthalle
Karlsruhe in 1973. [2]

[1] E. Bénézit et al., 'Dictionary of artists, Volume 13, Sommer-Valverane', Paris, 2006, p. 1262.
[2] See exhib. cat., 'Edmund Steppes (1873-1968). Gemälde – Zeichnungen – Graphik', Karlsruhe,
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.