Dietz Edzard

Summer Cafe

c. 1950s

Dietz Edzard was born in Bremen in 1893. He traveled extensively through Germany, Holland and France. Edzard, a colorful artist, who has carried on the traditions of the masters of French Impressionism, studied painting with Max Beckmann. In 1929, Edzard's work was included in an exhibition of Contemporary Painting at the Jeu de Paume, Paris, a museum dedicated to the Impressionist masters. In 1938, Edzard married Suzanne Eisendieck (1908–98), a well-regarded artist in her own right who worked in an impressionistic style. In Edzard’s book D. Edzard, Gerd Muehsam writes, "Edzard has captured in his canvases the charm of the Parisian atmosphere. With the light, vibrant touch of his brush, he produced sparkling, and yet delicate, paintings of beautiful women, dancers and flowers. His brilliant delineations of circus life and the theatre, his spirited portrayals of Parisian café scenes have made him a favorite of art circles in this country and abroad" "Consciously, (Edzard) turns his back on the experimental art of his contemporaries, opposes all weighting of art with programs and theorems. Deliberately, he avoids the representation of human conflict and inner discords and the chaos and shifting quicksands of modern existence. Instead, he prefers to work along with well-defined modes of expression. The line began in portraits of Velazquez and Goya and continued in the art of Manet and Renoir becomes Edzard's artistic credo."