Wednesday, 23 April 2025

Niklaus Stoecklin - part 1

Niklaus Stoecklin 1918
Self-Portrait

Niklaus Stoecklin (19 April 1896 – 1 December 1982) was a Swiss painter and graphic artist was born in Basel as the son of businessman Johann Niklaus Stoecklin (1859–1923). Stoecklin grew up in Basel, but in 1914 went to Munich to study under Robert Engels at the School of Arts and Crafts. It was there that his friendship with the sculptor Alexander Zschokke began.

At the outbreak of war, Stoecklin returned to Switzerland and took courses at Basel School of Arts and Crafts, where his teachers included Burkhard Mangold. He spent his period of active military service in the Canton of Ticino. There he painted his Casa Rossa (1917), a masterpiece of New Objectivity that was sold just a few months later, in 1918. The buyer was Georg Reinhart, an entrepreneur of Winterthur who became the Stoecklin’s first and most important collector, and a lifelong friend. In 1918 Stoecklin, was one of the founding members, alongside Zschokke, Fritz Baumann and Otto Morach, of the artist group Das Neue Leben. Ignaz Epper was another artist to whom he had contact at the time. 1920 saw Stoecklin and Albert Müller sharing a studio in San Gimignano in Tuscany.

Stoecklin was the only Swiss artist to be included in the seminal exhibition Neue Sachlichkeit. Deutsche Malerei seit dem Expressionismus curated by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub at Kunsthalle Mannheim in 1925. This was the show from which the New Objectivity of the 1920s and 1930s derived its name.


For many decades Stoecklin was also active as a poster designer. Some of his works in this genre were for competitions organized by the Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt. His public works, including his fresco above the public notice board for posting marriage banns on the Münsterplatz in Basel (1920) made him a well-known figure in Basel, as did his involvement in the painting of lanterns for the Basler Fasnacht. He also designed somel postage stamps for the Schweizer Post and illustrated the Schweizerfibel.


This is part 1 of a 4-part series on the works of Niklaus Stoecklin:


1918 The Blind
oil on cardboard mounted on hardboard 82 x 62.5 cm
Kunstmuseum Basel

1918 The Blind
lithograph on Japanese paper 29 x 25 cm

1918 Restaurant La Pusterla
oil on cardboard 41 x 44.5 cm
(Location not given)

1918 Barfüsserplatz
lithograph on paper 47 x 59 cm

c1920 Portrait of a woman with pearl jewellery
watercolour on paper 62.8 x 48.7 cm (sheet)  


1920 San Gimignano
watercolour and charcoal on paper 21.5 x 31.4 cm

1921 St. Jakobsmatte cross-country and patrol ride,
show-jumping competition, Basel
colour lithograph poster130 x 91 cm

1921 Basel Theatre Day in aid of the City Theatre-Persona poster

1922 Wealth tax, state economy
colour lithograph advertisement 128 x 90 cm

1922 Carpets Matzinger
colour lithograph advertisement 128 x 90 cm

1922 Cinema Wittlin, Masked Ball
2-colour lithograph

1922 The Printing Press, Gewerbemuseum Basel
colour lithograph poster 126.5 x 89 cm

1923 Helmgasse, Basel
oil on cardboard 51.5 x 24 cm

1923 The wood turning shop - Gewerbemuseum Basel
lihographic poster 128 x 91 cm

1923 Bell "the best of the good"
colour lithograph poster 128 x 90 cm

1924 Sandreuter, carpets fabrics
colour lithograph poster 128 x 90 cm

1924 Oriental Carpets Sandreuter & Co, Basel
colour lithograph poster 127 x 90.5 cm

1924 Horticultural Exhibition, Basel
colour lithograph poster 127.5 x 90.25 cm

c1925 Clus Ironworks: Transmissions
colour lithograph poster 127 x 90.1 cm

1925 Castello San Pietro
oil on cardboard 33 x 24 cm 

1925 Post buses in the Swiss Alps
colour lithograph poster 128 x 90 cm

1925 Animal Protection
colour lithograph poster (size not given)

1926 Vim, Clean Everything
colour lithograph poster 128 x 90 cm

1926 Still life with lilies in blue vase
oil on wood panel 73 x 51 cm

1926 Sanary-sur-Mer, Var, France
oil on painting board 50 x 65 cm

1926 Buebezigli
colour lithograph on paper 48 x 65 cm

1926 Basel consumer society BKG-LIGA
colour lithograph poster 128 x 90 cm

1926 Balair Line
colour lithograph poster 128 x 90 cm

1927 Schöntal Abbey (Germany)
oil on wood panel 52.5 x 45.5 cm

1927 Gaba for coughs!
two-colour lithograph poster 127.5 x 90 cm

1927 Forta silk fabrics
colour lithograph poster 127 x 89 cm

1928 Still Life
oil on wood panel 16 x 23.8 cm

1928 Lilies
oil on fibreboard 54 x 42 cm

1928 First snow, Autumn
oil on canvas 41.5 x 33 cm

1928 Capitol Theater C Eröffnet 15.Dez
two-colour lithograph popster 127.5 x 89.7 cm

1929 Tatjana Barbakoff
oil on card 55 x 40 cm

1929 Basel Artists' Festival, Summercasino
mono lithograph poster 129 x 90 cm

1929 Basel Quodlibet Masquerade Ball
colour lithograph poster 127 x 90 cm

1929 Arabian woman
oil on canvas 60 x 48 cm

1929-30 Biedermeier Miss
 oil on panel 193 x 74 cm

1929-30 Appenzeller-Senn
oil on panel 197 x 74.5 cm

1930-31 Masked Ball
gouache & coloured pencil 127 x 90 cm




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