Painter, cartoonist, illustrator, graphic designer, photographer

Karl Maximilian Arnold, born into the family of Bavarian entrepreneur and politician Max Oskar Arnold, was the fourth of nine children. After receiving secondary education, he studies drawing and modeling at an industrial and craft school in his hometown. In the autumn of 1901, he came to Munich and entered the Academy of Fine Arts there, where he studied first in the drawing class with Karl Raup, and then painting with Ludwig von Leffz and Franz von Stuck. Since the young artist did not receive financial support from his family, he turned to the editorial offices of the leading illustrated magazines in Munich. In September 1907, his first drawing was published in one of the most famous satirical publications in Germany, in the magazine Simplicissimus, in the same year it began to be published by the Art Nouveau magazine Die Jugend. In 1913, K. Arnold created the title page of Simplicissimus, in 1917 he became one of the co-owners of this publication. Up to 1942, about 1,800 drawings of the master were published in the magazine.

With the outbreak of the First World War, K. Arnold was mobilized, but assigned to the editorial office of the military newspaper Liller Kriegszeitung, created in occupied northern France for the needs of the 6th Army, where he works as an artist. Up to 1917, Arnold published 300 drawings of patriotic and nationalistic content on its pages. In the 1920s, in addition to Simplicissimus, he collaborated with the Swiss satirical newspaper Nebelspalter (Tearing Fog), with the Münchner Illustrierte Presse, as well as with the magazines Die Dame and Leprosy (Ulk). When the National Socialists came to power in Germany in 1933 – despite the sharp criticism of A. Hitler on its pages — the magazine was not closed, and K. Arnold continued his work there. Not being a supporter of the regime, the artist at the same time announced that he was not suitable for protest Resistance, preferring to maneuver between parties. In 1936 he also worked for the Berlin publishing house Ulstein, in 1937 he went to Paris for the World Exhibition as a journalist-illustrator. In 1939, he was awarded the title of professor of painting. At the same time, in 1938, K. Arnold’s book Berliner Bilder (Berlin Sketches), published in 1924, was recognized by the Imperial Writers’ Chamber as wrecking and not recommended. In 1942, the artist suffered a stroke, after which he could not recover, and stopped his artistic activity.

1910. Arnold was married since 1911 to the artist Anna-Dora Folkwardsen, with whom he had known since his student years and lived in Paris in 1909-1910. In this marriage they had four sons.

To.Arnold, along with Olaf Gulbransson, Thomas Heine and Bruno Paul, is among the most significant German cartoonists of the first half of the XX century.

Awards:

1952 Honorary Prize in the field of graphics of the City of Munich

1953 Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Munich

Reference: Wikipedia, 2010