Winter (aka: Heiliger Matthias)

Erich Erler

Some sources list the title of this 1920 intaglio as “Heiliger Matthias,” or Saint Matthias, who is mentioned in the Book of Acts as the apostles’ chosen replacement for Judas Iscariot. Saint Matthias bore an axe and his feast day, prior to 1968, was February 24. Erich Erler’s image, however, appears to have a more mythological than religious representation, with the inclusion of a mystical unicorn and the Saint’s resemblance to bearded Norse gods of the coldest season.

The image encompasses a wide swath of mythological references to Father Time, Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, and the early Germanic pagan god Woden. Nonetheless, the mysterious image is emblematic of the winter season, with its portrayal of mountainous terrain blanketed in heavy snow, and the rays of a luminescent celestial body crowning the main figure.

Printmaker Erich Erler, also known as Erich Erler-Samedan or, simply, Samedan, was born in on December 16, 1870, in Schlesien, Poland. Originally trained as a printer and book maker, he also worked as an editor, publishing the cycles Totentanz and Die Nibelungen. He contracted tuberculosis in the late 1890s and had to relocate to the Swiss village of Samedan to convalesce. To pass the time, he taught himself how to paint, beginning with temperas, and soon he was traveling throughout the region capturing the mountain landscapes and the local people he met along the way. Among his collectors was the Neisser family, a prominent Jewish family in Breslau whose circle of friends and patrons included Gerhart Hauptmann, composer Richard Strauss, and Dr. Oskar Bernard, among others.

By 1900 he had established residences in both Samedan and Munich, and joined the Die Scholle group with whom he regularly exhibited. In 1905 he built a studio in Holzhausen with his artist brother Fritz, turning down offers of employment as an art teacher to focus on his own works. With the onset of World War I, and despite the poor condition of his lungs, he joined the Germany Army and was sent to the frontlines. The horrors he witnessed left him unable to pursue art for a time; after completing the War and From the Front cycles, he retired with his wife to Icking and worked as a farm laborer for several years. The remaining work in his possesion was later confiscated by Nazi officials and became lost after the Second World War.

Erler died in Icking, Bavaria, Germany on June 19, 1946.