Heinrich Schlitt Biography

Heinrich Schlitt

Heinrich Schlitt (1849-1923) was a German painter and illustrator, known for his fantasy motifs that feature gnomes, dwarves, and faeries. He was one of the in-house artists at the Villeroy & Boch ceramic company in Mettlach, Saarland, and his designs for their beer steins remain popular with collectors to this day.

Schlitt was born in Wiesbaden in the Duchy of Nassau, what would now be in the modern day German state of Hesse. His father was a member of the court of the Duke of Nassau, working as a coachman. After the Prussian annexation of the Duchy, Schlitt joined the Dutch military, a choice thought to be the result of the Schlitt family moving to the Netherlands with the rest of the exiled Duchy.

Schlitt was a student of Kaspar Kögler at his school in Wiesbaden. In 1875, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Wilhelm Lindenschmit the Younger. He exhibited his works at exhibitions put on by the Munich Artists' Cooperative.

Early in his career, Schlitt first became well known to the public as an illustrator. He produced hundreds of illustrations for a wide array of publications, including books, periodicals, and newspapers such as Die Gartenlaube, Das Buch Für Alle and Illustrirte Zeitung.

Images to download

See below to download artwork by Heinrich Schlitt. Click on the item for more information.

1 product