Ulm on the Danube, drypoint, 1925
Ernst Gustav Zipperer was born in Ulm in 1888 as the son of the upholsterer Ernst Hermann Zipperer and his wife Friederike. Zipperer and his younger brother Max grew up in the immediate vicinity of Ulm Minster. After his schooling in Ulm from 1894 to 1902, at his father’s request, he followed in his footsteps and trained as a saddler and upholsterer. After passing his journeyman's examination in 1905 and working both in the family business and for a time for another employer, he followed his inclination for art and attended the arts and crafts school in Hanover from 1907 to 1909. He then transferred to Paul Heinrich’s academy in Hildburghausen for further qualification (1909 – 1910). From October 1910 to November 1911, he did his military service as a volunteer in Neu-Ulm. He then attended the arts and crafts school in Kassel where he obtained a qualification as drawing teacher for secondary schools and teacher training institutions (1911 – 1913). Following that, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich for one term as a student of Heinrich Wölfflin.[3] In March 1914, Ernst Zipperer took up his first post as trainee drawing teacher at Berlin-Lichterfelde Grammar School. However, this was interrupted due to being drafted into war service in Masuria, East Prussia in August 1914.
In World War I, Ernst Zipperer served as an officer. He was seriously wounded near Minsk in Russia in 1915 due to a head shot and lost his left eye. As a consequence, he underwent treatment at the Eye Hospital in Stuttgart for a period of one year. As a result of his injuries, he suffered from severe headaches and spells of dizziness as well as kidney problems for the rest of his life.
In June 1917, he returned to Berlin-Lichterfelde Grammar School and qualified as drawing teacher in September. From October 1917 to September 1918, he served as district officer in Rastenburg in East Prussia.
Berlin
In 1918, Ernst Zipperer married Elisabeth Nestler (born 3 November 1894 in Hildburghausen; died 5 June 1977 in Heilbronn). Following their wedding, he took up the post of art teacher at Hermann von Helmholtz Grammar School in Berlin-Schönefeld. The couple had three children: Ernst Wilhelm (1919 – 2005), Gisela (1921 – 1928) and Vera Charlotte (born 1931). In 1920, he moved to Berlin-Friedenau Grammar School where he taught until 1940. There, until 1940, he influenced a whole generation of young people. His pupils included persons such as the resistance fighter Friedrich Justus Perels, the columnist Friedrich Luft and the politicians Egon Bahr and Peter Lorenz. Zipperer was deeply respected by his pupils and many remained in close contact with him until his death. He enjoyed a deep friendship with Helmut Ammann who became a prominent sculptor, painter and graphic artist.
Ernst Zipperer’s first years of teaching in Berlin also marked the beginning of his first major creative phase which lasted until 1940. During these two decades, Zipperer produced a significant body of work. He traveled extensively throughout Germany and to various European countries in order to study and produce art works. His preferred technique at the time was drypoint etching and with this technique he became known both in and outside Germany.
Ernst Hermann Zipperer (father), pastel, 1913
In Berlin, Zipperer developed friendships with the artists Heinrich Zille and Max Liebermann.[4] He was particularly close to the sculptor August Gaul, in whose house he lived for almost one year in 1917. Gaul appreciated and sponsored Ernst Zipperer. Through Gaul, a member of the Executive Committee of the Berlin Secession, Zipperer came into contact with Berlin arts world.
Tannenburg bei Bühlertann
Tannenburg near Bühlertann
In 1931, Zipperer bought Tannenburg Castle, a castle dating back to the Staufer period, with its farm estate near the village of Bühlertann in Ellwangen District (now Schwäbisch Hall District) in north-east Württemberg.[5] He leased the associated farm estate and continued to work in Berlin.
Tannenburg and Bühlertann, Württemberg
As a disabled war veteran, Ernst Zipperer retired from teaching in 1940 and moved from Berlin to Tannenburg Castle. Under extremely difficult conditions, he managed the farm estate until the return of his son Ernst Wilhelm from the war and captivity (1940 – 1948). In 1951, he handed over the castle and the farm estate to his son and, in 1963, left the castle to move to the home of his daughter Vera in Bühlertann. With the deterioration of his remaining eye’s sight, he had to give up his artistic work in 1972. He spent the last years of his life at the home of his daughter who had since moved to Flein near Heilbronn. Ernst Gustav Zipperer died on May 26, 1982 at the age of 94 and was buried in Bühlertann.
Tannenburg, Drypoint, 1940
Work
The artistic work of Ernst Zipperer covers his early work until 1918, the creative phase in Berlin (1918-1940) and his late work (1950-1972). According to the current status, about 1,300 works have been documented.
Early work (until 1917)
Already as a child and during his apprenticeship, Ernst Zipperer showed a particular talent for drawing. During this period, many drawings and sketches evolved, but most of them are now lost. From the period of his artistic education in Hanover, Kassel and Munich, numerous studies on perspective and shadowing as well as technical drawings still exist.
Under the influence of Prof. Heubach[6] in Hanover Zipperer turned its attention to the drawing of architecture. At the same time he created landscapes, portraits, nudes, ornaments and still lifes, which he mainly executed as pencil drawings, rarely as watercolors.
During his wartime deployment in Russia (1914 – 1915), his artistic talent expressed itself in a wide variety of ways. Due to a lack of photographic resources, he sketched military combats which were used in connection with strategic decisions. In the trenches, he sketched portraits of fellow soldiers and officers as a memento to be sent to their families. Two small drawings from this period are extant.
His severe war injury was followed by a one-year convalescence period at the Eye Hospital in Stuttgart. After regaining the sight of his remaining eye, he produced many art works, while still in hospital. In numerous sketches and drawings, he focused on people who showed considerable signs of what they had gone through during the war. Some pictures of that time clearly show the influence of Heinrich Zille.[7]
Berlin Phase (1918 – 1940)
Magdalen Tower, Oxford, Drypoint, 1925
In 1919 Ernst Zipperer discovered drypoint etching for himself. He drew and etched castles, city views, churches, landscapes, portraits, flowers and animals - mostly in small to medium format. The main topic in this phase was architecture. He found more than 40 motifs alone in his hometown of Ulm. On his numerous travels he made pencil drawings as preliminary studies for the later etchings.
Swabian Alb with Hohenrechberg and Hohenstaufen, drypoint, 1925
A total of more than 300 drypoint etchings were created, which were characterized by careful area division, well thought-out image composition and formal design ability. Added to this was the perspective effect of his pictures, which he succeeded convincingly despite one-eyed. Zipperer achieved an increase in spatiality and expression by drawing inspiration from Chiaroscuro.[8] Also characteristic was the staffage found in many etchings, which discreetly guides the eye of the beholder.
Station Hall Berlin, drypoint, 1923
"The many moving strokes, which sometimes had an almost shimmering effect - combined with a strict mold design - that was typical Zipperer".[9] But he was not just concerned with the reproduction of reality. "Zipperer did not represent dead objects, but things that have a destiny and therefore life."[10] Rather, he sought the creative translation of his perception into the artistic. "He knew how to express what weaves the visible in emotional mood".[11]
That Zipperer was also "a portrait drypoint etcher of rank and depth"[12] is shown by his portraits, which he executed as pencil drawings and etchings. During training in Kassel he had received an award for portrait drawing.
In the mid-twenties, Zipperer occasionally colored etchings by hand. As towards the end of the decade increasingly colored etchings were required, he had many of his motifs in color print.
Numerous etchings were commissioned by cities, companies, art dealers or private individuals. A large part of the etchings was published by various publishers as art cards and sold through the art trade.
Zipperer worked for decades with the copper printing company Wilhelm Schneider in Berlin, where the copper plates were stored. A larger number of plates were lost during the Second World War and in the subsequent turmoil or got into unauthorized hands. This explains that pirate prints came into circulation as a result.
With his drypoint etchings Ernst Zipperer became known in Europe and America - less by exhibitions than by the very successful distribution of his pictures by some art publishers and numerous art shops in Germany and abroad.[A 1] In addition to pencil drawings and etchings, Zipperer began working with pastels in this phase, sometimes in larger formats. Also some sketches in different techniques, which served for demonstration purposes in the classroom, are preserved from this time.
Ernst Zipperer’s wife Elisabeth contributed considerably to his work since she kept him free from the burden of day-to-day activities. She handled business correspondence with the copperplate printers, art dealers and prospective buyers. Likewise, she helped to organize the countless visits of art lovers.
Creative break (1941 – 1949)
During World War II and the immediately succeeding years, Ernst Zipperer’s artistic activities almost came to a complete stop. The difficult conditions of everyday life at the castle left no scope for art.
Late work (1950 – 1972)
After the turmoil of the war and the handover of Tannenburg to his son, Ernst Zipperer was able to devote himself entirely to his art. He left the era of drypoint behind him and entered a new intense phase of artistic creation. The late work of the artist is characterized by experimentation and new ideas. For Zipperer, the movement runs along the art-historical development of his time from realistic-naturalistic to abstract-reductionist representation. At the same time, the realistic and abstract modes of expression do not stand for a closed stage of artistic recognition. Rather, both exist side by side. Abstract depictions are again followed by a landscape or a bouquet of flowers.[4] He is always looking for "ground under his feet," as he called it.[13]
It is a further thematic arc that spans the "complexity of its meaningful images".[14] In many cases, these are already well-known motifs that recur again and again - often in a reduced form - trees in the landscape, a ravine and clouds above; especially the clouds occupied him throughout his life.[15] In addition, there are themes such as peace and quiet, but also division and destruction, which he translates abstractly.[13] "Everything you can think of, you can also draw", the artist described his own spectrum in later years.[16]
Increasingly employed Ernst Zipperer, who was influenced Protestant in the parental home, but in his old age increasingly took up Catholic thought, religious and biblical themes: The Psalms, the story of creation, Job and the Gospel of John. He also transformed the music of Bach, Mozart and Tchaikovsky into colors and forms.
Before God, all men are equal, oil pastels, 1959
Before God, all men are equal, oil pastels, 1959
The old man in the new world, oil pastels, 1967
The old man in the new world, oil pastels, 1967
Heaven and earth, oil pastels, 1965
Heaven and earth, oil pastels, 1965
Unfolding, oil pastels, 1965
Unfolding, oil pastels, 1965
Development, pastel, 1967
Development, pastel, 1967
Landscape, pastel, 1964
Landscape, pastel, 1964
Dialogue, Heliogravure, 1958
Ernst Zipperer found in pastel and oil pastels, but also in tempera and oil paint adequate materials to express his imagination and his mystical inwardness - sometimes cautious-mindful, then again powerful-dynamic.
In the gravure printing of the heliogravure Zipperer did in 1955 in cooperation with his Berlin printing on new ways on how he could spread some of his large-sized pastel paintings in large numbers. It is a fine-printing process that transfers the original to a copper plate in a complex photo-chemical process. The heliogravure makes a very differentiated reproduction of halftones possible and thus creates a wealth of color power. The prints, also known as hand copper, met with great interest in the art trade and in the personal environment of the artist. They were affordable, allowing a wider audience access to this art.
There is not a single self-portrait by Ernst Zipperer. However, he draws a picture especially in his late works: In it he shows how he sees the visible and invisible world with his inner eye.
In addition to some extensive, there are many smaller private collections with works by Ernst Zipperer. Individual works are held in German museums or municipal archives. Ernst Zipperer’s artistic estate is managed by his daughter Vera Prior and grandson Lothar Zipperer.