Franz Bronstert (1895 - 1967)

Franz Bronstert

Franz Bronstert was a German engineer and painter. Before World War I Bronstert visited and finished the superior school for engineers in Hagen. He served during the war in the rank of Lieutenant and later „Rittmeister" equivalent to Captain. As a prisoner of war at Ripon, Yorkshire he got into contact with artists Fritz Fuhrken and Georg Philipp Wörlen and started with his own artistic work. These contacts led to the foundation of the group of artists „Der Fels" (The Rock). Past the war he settled in Hagen and made contact with the group around collector Karl Ernst Osthaus especially with Christian Rohlfs. The latter influenced the work of Bronstert considerably. Membership in „Der Fels" led to numerous exhibitions all over Germany and Austria between 1921 and 1927. Bronstert’s art developed from radical expressionism of the early twenties to a realistic phase and finally to a reformed impressionism as the artist claims himself. Bronstert finds his motifs mostly in nature. Even though Bronstert mastered several techniques, like oil painting, drawing, woodcut it was the watercolour painting that he loved most. Bronstert was both a technical and artistic talent. He was successful in his job and was a member of the board of VARTA with several international patents on his record when he retired. Past retirement he concentrated solely on his art again. Works by Bronstert can be found in the Schneider Collection, Museum Baden, Solingen; in the collections of Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum in Hagen; in the Museum Schloss Moyland, in the Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, in the Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich,and in the art museums of Soest, Germany, Iserlohn, and Lüdenscheid as well as in private collections.

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