SwissArtGallery · Documented identity

Clemens Fränkel

Trained in Munich under Heinrich Knirr and then at the Academy of Fine Arts under Otto Seitz, Ludwig Schmid-Reutte and Ludwig von Löfftz, Clemens Fränkel developed a body of landscape work attentive to the places he travelled through and the motifs he observed on site. After his studies, a year-long stay in Italy in 1903 took him to Florence, Rome, Campania and Capri; these stops provided subjects for oil paintings, sketches and drawings. Back in Bavaria, he turned his attention to the foothills of the Alps and to landscapes accessible from Munich. He went on excursions in the valleys of the Isar and Amper, along the Altmühl and in the Dachau moor, where he worked directly on paper or canvas.

Between 1904 and 1909, he took part in the annual exhibitions of the Frankfurter Kunstverein. In 1906, he founded a landscape painting school in Leoni, before settling there with his wife in 1909. He continued to paint in oil, often in small formats, and also worked in gouache and in pencil, charcoal and pastel. His exhibition activity included showing his works at the Munich Secession in 1909, followed by the Glaspalast in 1912 and 1914. The Heinemann Gallery exhibited his work and held a solo exhibition for him in Munich in November and December 1920. After his school closed in 1915, he returned to Munich with his family. From 1918, he again took part regularly in major exhibitions.

In 1929, he moved with his wife and son to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. There he produced drawn or watercolour sketches, gouaches and oil sketches, as well as his last large-format oil paintings. Fränkel was subsequently prohibited from selling his paintings. In June 1936, he moved with his son to Ohlstadt; at the end of April 1937, they both left Germany for Cortina d’Ampezzo. Between 1937 and 1943, he produced small- and medium-format oil paintings, gouaches, woodcuts, aquatints and numerous sketches there. Documented works from this period include Cinque Torri (Cortina), an oil on cardboard datable to 1937–1943, and Brücke bei Florenz, a gouache from 1943. The Museum Aschenbrenner in Garmisch-Partenkirchen dedicated an exhibition to him in 2022, accompanied by a catalogue edited by Thomas Steppan and Karin Teufl.

This profile brings together identity references for Clemens Fränkel and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

1 references are documented at Dobiaschofsky. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.

Sources and references

• Reference record
• RKDartists · ODC-BY-1.0
• Documentary source

SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
Documentation updated : 2026-10-19