Karl Bauer

Karl Konrad Friedrich Bauer (Stuttgart, 1868 – Munich, 1942) was a German painter, printmaker and illustrator, who also wrote poetry. His strong draughtsmanship made him a sought-after illustrator and portraitist in the early twentieth century, and his work reflects an interest in the German graphic tradition.

He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Wilhelm von Lindenschmit and travelled often to Italy and France. To support himself he taught drawing to the children of wealthy families and painted portraits. In 1891, while in Venice, he met Stefan George, who admired both his drawings and his poems and brought him into his circle in Munich. From 1896 he settled in that city, where he worked mainly as an illustrator, producing a notable edition of Heinrich Heine's Buch der Lieder. Around 1930 he moved back to Stuttgart.

As a portraitist he cultivated a detailed linear style rooted in the German Renaissance, with Dürer as a reference. He painted portraits of Martin Luther for churches in Görlitz, Oppenweiler and Helsinki, and of figures such as Goethe, Schiller and Beethoven. During the First World War he published Führer und Helden (Leaders and Heroes), portraits of famous military figures. In the Nazi era his traditionalist style was acceptable to the regime, and he made several portraits of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring. His legacy is now tied to that period, which raises questions about his collaboration with the regime.