Fritz Bleyl

Hilmar Friedrich Wilhelm Bleyl, known as Fritz Bleyl (8 October 1880 – 19 August 1966), was a German artist of the Expressionist school, and one of the four founders of artist group Die Brücke ("The Bridge"). He designed graphics for the group including, for their first show, a poster, which was banned by the police. He left the group after only two years, when he married, to look after his family, and did not exhibit publicly thereafter.

Fritz Bleyl was born in Zwickau, Kingdom of Saxony, and grew up in the Erzgebirge region. In 1901 he began studying architecture at the Königliche Technische Hochschule (technical university) of Dresden, as his parents wished; however, his own desire was to become a painter. The institution provided a wide range of studies in addition to architecture, such as freehand drawing, perspective drawing and the historical study of art.

Bleyl became close friends with fellow student, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, whom he met during the first term. They discussed art together and also studied nature, having a radical outlook in common.

In 1905, Bleyl along with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and two other architecture students, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel, founded the artists group Die Brücke ("The Bridge"). The group aimed to eschew the prevalent traditional academic style and find a new mode of artistic expression, which would form a bridge (hence the name) between the past and the present. They responded both to past artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder, as well as contemporary international avant-garde movements. Their group was one of the seminal ones, which in due course had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the 20th century and created the style of Expressionism. At this time, Bleyl was a keen member of the group. This met initially in Kirchner's first studio, which had previously been a butcher's shop. Bleyl described it as:

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