Figure 1.-- Probably Freund's best known painting is entitled "The Snowball Fight"--a canvas in which the boys safte school have launched into a massive snowball fight. He did another canvas on a snowball fight. The fight here is set in the street outside the schoolyard. (We suspect thsat throwing sbowballs was prohibited in the schoolyard.) The boys' winter dress is interesting. The boys wear knee pants and heavy woolen long stockings. Notice all the school satchels. We are not sure when this work was painted. A reader writes, "From the costuming, I would guess that this picture dates from the 1910s." We would guess a little earlier, perhaps the 1900s or even the 1890s.

Fritz Freund was born in Darmstadt (1859). His father was Hugo Freund, a bank manager. Fritz grew up in Munich. He studied law largely as a result of his father's advice, but his interests were more with art. He studied art at the Munich Academy with Gabriel von Hackl, Nicolaus Gysi and William of Lindenschmitt. He joined the Munich artists' cooperative (MCG). His work was at first highly realistic, but we was influenced by the impressionists in his later work. He became acquinted with the Miesbach area after spending a summer there. He subsequently moved his family to a villa there (1900s). His work then was generally set in Miesbach or the environs. He painted a beautiful altar piece for the Evangelical Church of the Apostles there. He died in Miesbach. The internet seems to be of various minds about the exact date of his death. One site suggests that he lived until 1942. He was obviously something of a realist and was fond of depicting German gernre scenes. Probably his best known painting is entitled "The Snowball Fight"--a canvas in which the boys after school have launched into a massive snowball fight. He did another canvas on a snowball fight. The fight here is set in the street outside the schoolyard. (We suspect thsat throwing sbowballs was prohibited in the schoolyard.) The boys' winter dress is interesting. The boys wear knee pants and heavy woolen long stockings. Notice all the school satchels. We are not sure when this work was painted. A reader writes, "From the costuming, I would guess that this picture dates from the 1910s." We would guess a little earlier, perhaps the 1900s or even the 1890s. The length of the boys' knee pants suggests to us a period before the 1910s. A factor here nay be that artists painting genre scenes (as opposed to actual portraits with a subject) may draw fasions from early periods and not just contemprary fashions. Notice that the boys are all leaving from the side entrance rather than throuh the school yard entrance.

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Created: 12:10 AM 1/21/2010
Last updated: 12:10 AM 1/21/2010