ART & ARTISTS: Niklaus Stoecklin

Monday, 28 April 2025

Niklaus Stoecklin - part 2

Self Portrait 1916

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.

For earlier works see part 1 also. This is part 2 of a 4-part series on the works of Niklaus Stoecklin:

c1930 View from the studio with mannequin and globe
oil on wood panel 58 x 44 cm

1931 Valvo
colour lithograph poster 128 x 90 cm

1931 Radio House Scheuchzer
colour lithograph poster 126.25 x 90.75

1932 Still life with Staffordshire dog, flowers, and pin cushion
oil on canvas 46.5 x 55.5 cm

1934 Breastfeeding mother
oil on canvas 135.5 x 52.5 cm

1934 PKZ (men's clothing store in Switzerland)
colour lithograph poster 127 x 91 cm

1934 Kobag, pay off your home debt
colour lithograph poster 128 x 90 cm

1935 Orchid in a tin jug
oil on canvas 20 x 16 cm

1935 Leonhardsberg, Ausberg, Germany
colour lithograph 23 x 23 cm

1935 Gaba, prevent!
colour lithograph 31 x 22 cm

1936 Floral still life
oil on cardboard 32 x 24 cm

1937 Stag Beetle
watercolour on paper 15 x 12.5 cm

Burgfelderhof, Basel
oil on canvas 33 x 55 cm

1938 Waterfall
oil on canvas 55 x 33 cm

1938 Still life with Easter eggs and an Easter bunny chocolate mould
oil on canvas 33 x 41 cm

1938 Landesring 8
mono lithograph poster (size not Given)

1939 Drawing, Painting, Sculpting II. Art of the Grgenwart
mono poster (size not given)

1939 Mountain landscape in the moonlight
watercolour over pencil on paper 6 x 6 cm

1939 Midwife Toad
watercolour on paper 10.5 x 10 cm

1939 Church of San Gian (Engadin, Switzerland)
oil on cardboard 16 x 22 cm

c1940 Meta Meta
colour lithograph 26 x 19 cm

1940 Forest floor with Fly Agaric and Salamanders
oil on canvas 27 x 35 cm

c1941 Bi-Oro, Anti-solar
colour lithograph 33 x 24 cm

1941 Vairano (Ticino, Switzerland)
ink on paper 23 x 31 cm

1941 1941 Mourning cloak
gouache, chalk and ink on paper 20 x 22 cm