Welcome to Karuizawa: The Etchings of Willy Seiler

Note: This post has been updated and revised in light of new information supplied by Anita A. Larenz, Willy Seiler's daughter, and Werner R. Seiler, Rudolf Seiler's son.

 

Willy Otto Oskar Seiler (1903-1985) was one of the most popular foreign printmakers in post-WWII Japan.  His target audience was American tourists and, in particular, G.I.s stationed in occupied Japan.

Willy Seiler (1941)

Most of the basic reported facts about Seiler’s life and career come from articles in Pacific Stars and Stripes and similar publications or from Seiler’s own promotional materials and, no doubt, contain some puffery.  Based on interviews with members of the Seiler family, I have been able to correct many of the apocryophal facts surrounding Seiler's life and career, although the family members' recollections are not always in agreement.

 

Seiler was born in Oberlößnitz [Radebeul], near Dresden, Germany in 1903.  He received his first schooling in art in Dresden, and then worked as a porcelain painter at the famed Meissen Studio.  He continued his studies in Munich, followed by a two year period of study in Paris, where he met his future wife, Marie Schneider.  The pair would later marry in Greece.  Thereafter Seiler worked as an artist and as a restorer of old paintings (also his father’s profession) until about 1928, at which point he left Germany and began to travel the world.

[Road to Karuizawa] by Willy Seiler
(oil painting)

Road to Karuizawa (plate #49A) by Willy Seiler

Courtesy of Artelino.com

(hand-colored etching)

By the 1950s, he had supposedly visited approximately 50 countries, some of them several times.  His paintings were said to have been “exhibited in Rome and Paris, in Jerusalem and Teheran, San Francisco and Mexico . . . enthusiastically received and acclaimed by Maharajahs in India and by princes and high officials in many other countries.”   According to Seiler himself, his work was owned by such luminaries as Sir Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Douglas MacArthur, Willy Brandt, Conrad Hilton, Robert MacNamara, John Foster Dulles, Theodor Heuss, Danny Kaye, and Eleanor Roosevelt.  (As impressive as this might sound, at least some of these people owned his work because Seiler gave them his etchings as gifts.)

Pearl Divers by Willy Seiler

(oil painting)

Pearl Divers (plate #5A) by Willy Seiler

(hand-colored etching)

Seiler first visited Japan in 1933 with his wife Marie (nicknamed Mariette) at the invitation of the Japanese Industry Club on his way to the United States and Mexico.  Merrill Holmes has uncovered a passenger list from November 1933 that said that Marie was from Dresden and listed her occupation as a landscape artist.  (In contrast, Seiler's occupation at that time was listed as a portrait artist.)  Seiler's daughter, however, told me that Marie Seiler was born outside of French-speaking Strasbourg, and so French by birth, and was studying to be a pediatric nurse in Paris when she met Willy.   She took up painting for only a very short period of time after she married but decided that it was not what she wanted to do.

 

Seiler's daughter Anita was born in Japan during that trip, and the Seilers left Japan in November 1933 for California once mother and child were in a condition to travel.  Four years later, Willy decided to follow his older brother Rudolf Seiler on his own trip to Japan.  The two brothers would thereafter remain in Japan for over three decades.  

 

In 1937, Willy Seiler founded an art school in Tokyo until it closed in 1945.  Few oil paintings from this period have survived, however, due to the Allied bombing of Tokyo that destroyed the homes of many of Seiler's Japanese patrons.  

 

Seiler also visited the Central China front as war artist for the Japanese government at some point during the Second Sino-Japanese War.  (Seiler's nephew says that Willy was a good photographer, but thinks it unlikely that he actually sketched or painted anything on his trips.)  Unlike his brother Rudolf, who had been actively working against Hitler since 1933, Werner Seiler says that Willy Seiler was a member and supporter of the National Socialist German Workers' Party which, if true, no doubt ingratiated him with the Japanese authorities and helped him secure the war artist position.  Willy Seiler's daughter disputes the implication that her father had Nazi-party sympathies, noting that Willy was against the War, that he was not antisemitic, that he had many Jewish friends, and that he later married (or else had a common law marriage with) a Jewish concentration camp survivor.

Map of Karuizawa

Courtesy of Petrie-Rogers Asian Fine Arts & Antiques

According to Werner Seiler, Rudolf Seiler, like most foreign residents, was forcibly evacuated from Tokyo with his family in the spring of 1945 and was resettled in Karuizawa.   He said that Willy Seiler and his family were living in the Kobe area at that time, were evacuated to Gotemba, near Hakone, but that Willy would later also move Karuizawa, where he opened up a studio.   Anita Lorenz, however, said her family was living in the residential district of Tokyo called Ômori immediately before moving to Karuizawa.

 

When WWII was over, Rudolf Seiler's family was given special IDs and full Allied Forces privileges.  Like other Germans who had not been NSDAP members or supporters, they were allowed to stay in Japan.  Anita Lorenz remembers officials coming to her house and receiving special IDs as well.  Werner Seiler, however, says that all other Germans, including Willy Seiler's family, were told that they would be deported back to Germany.  It was only because Rudolf Seiler, who had become close to General MacArthur, had intervened on Willy's behalf that Willy was allegedly paroled and allowed to stay in Japan with certain restrictions.  Rudolf Seiler also supposedly ended up financially supported his brother for some time.  Anita Lorenz, on the other hand, says she is not aware of any evidence to support such claims, and says that her father would never have been allowed social contact with General MacArthur if he had had Nazi sympathies.  The two brothers had a permanent falling out over another matter not long after, which resulted in decades of estrangement among the two branches of the Seiler family.

 

Karuizawa, a posh resort town, was also one of the locations where the occupying forces were stationed after WWII.  Willy Seiler would later instruct U.S. Army personnel in oil painting, life drawing, and sketching at the Tokyo Army Educational Center in the late 1940s.  Around this time, Willy divorced his wife Marie.  By the 1950s, Seiler had reopened the “Willy Seiler Academy of Fine Arts” in Tokyo in partnership with the conductor and composer Manfred Gurlitt.  One of  the other inhabitants in Karuizawa during the war was the French artist and woodblock print designer Paul Jacoulet, who also occasionally lectured at the Tokyo Army Educational Center.

 

Japanese Girl and Boy dolls by Willy Seiler

In addition to oil painting and etching, Seiler also created “Seiler dolls,” cloth dolls similar to those produced in China by Ada Lum.  They depict field workers, apprentice geisha, schoolboys, etc. in authentic native Japanese or Korean dress.

Heartbroken by Willy Seiler

Courtesy of Petrie-Rogers Asian Fine Arts & Antiques

(oil painting)

Heartbroken (plate #8A) by Willy Seiler

(hand-colored etching)

While Seiler’s oil paintings only intermittently turn up today, beginning in late 1940s Seiler began to make the soft ground copperplate etchings for which he is best remembered today.  Anita Lorenz said this switch was of economic necessity, as most of Seiler's former patrons could no longer afford to buy his oil paintings after the War.  The majority of these etchings, which were primarily sold at various military base post exchanges in the Far East, feature sympathetic portraits of peasant farmers and fisherman at work, children at play, and women chatting or shopping.  Seiler also made landscape etchings, but he eschewed the usual depictions of temples and castles, focusing instead on the natural beauty of the Japanese countryside.  He also did a series of nudes, intended no doubt to decorate the barracks of lonely servicemen.

Cormorant Fishing (plate #11) by Willy Seiler

(etching)

General MacArthur [#2] (plate #38A) by Willy Seiler

Courtesy of Petrie-Rogers Asian Fine Arts & Antiques

(hand-colored etching)

Although the vast majority of Seiler’s etchings feature Japanese people or landscapes, a handful feature Chinese subjects.  He also released a “Korean edition” of twelve etchings (not counting his portrait of Dr. Syngman Rhee).  Particularly popular were three bust portraits of General Douglas MacArthur which were made while on assignment for Pacific Stars and Stripes.

Japanese Rice Farmer (plate #15A) by Willy Seiler
(etching)

Back of Japanese Rice Farmer (plate #15) by Willy Seiler

(etching)

Seiler issued his print designs in two distinct editions.  The main edition would be printed in black or sepia ink, whereas the other one would be a smaller edition hand-colored with watercolor.  Anita Lorenz said that Seiler would handcolor at least one etching himself, but that he used assistants (including Anita) to do most of the handcoloring according to his color specifications.  The size of the edition (labeled “pieces” ) generally would be printed on the back of etching.  The back of the etching would also list a “plate number.”   

 

Some dealers have confused this with the print number within the stated edition.  Seiler, however, did not individually number his prints.  Rather, this plate number operated as a code or catalog number for the print design.  Thus, plate number “15” is unique to all the “Japanese Rice Farmer” etchings, rather than suggesting that the print is #15/180.  The print itself originally would have been originally issued in a folder that also bore the number “15.”  It is not uncommon years later, however, to find a particular etching mistakenly stored in folder for a completely different design.   The use of the “A” suffix after the plate number (e.g., “15A”) indicates that the etching was hand-colored.

Original folder for Rice Threshing (plate #17) by Willy Seiler

Courtesy of Artelino.com

(folder and etching)

All of Seiler’s etchings bearing a plate number below 100 are in a standard size of 12.5” x 15.25” (or 15.25” x 12.5”).  Seiler’s etchings which are smaller are generally not numbered and their edition size is unknown at present, but extent folders for such prints are labeled with plate numbers above 100.  Many of these smaller etchings were issued as holiday greeting cards or as calendar prints.  Seiler also produced a series of postcard sets featuring reduced versions of his commercial etchings.

[Trees by Riverbank] (c. 1953) by Willy Seiler

Personal Collection

(calendar etching)

[Sailboat] (pre-1954) by Willy Seiler

Personal Collection

(oil painting)

[Sailboat] (pre-1954) by Willy Seiler

Personal Collection

(etching used on the May 1954 calendar page)

Little is currently known about Seiler’s private life.  He was known to have been a pet fancier (three dogs and a cat) and a fan of movies.  He also played bridge and raised chickens.  In 1964, he designed seals for the Tokyo Olympics, the last dated work I could find, but they came out too late to be used.

Olympic Seal (1964) by Willy Seiler

According to his nephew, Willy had "some problems" in Japan and permanently left the country sometime in the late 1970s or in the 1980-1981 time period with a German Jewish concentration camp survivor he had been living with for some while.  (Anita Lorenz said she thought they were married, but could not be sure.)  They settled near the East German border at what seems to have been his partner's place.  He also spent some time in Berlin, ultimately publishing a book in 1981 that promoted the peaceful unification of East and West Germany.  Seiler, however, produced no further artwork after he returned to Germany, and he died there in 1985.

 

Willy Seiler (c. 1950s)

Shrewd Bartering (plate #67A) by Willy Seiler
(hand-colored etching)

Fisherman (plate #64A) by Willy Seiler

(hand-colored etching)

Since Willy Seiler’s output of monochromatic and colored etchings exceeded 200 prints, it is too large to be included in this post.  But seeing as there is no comprehensive listing of Seiler’s prints in the literature or on the Internet, I have decided to host a catalog inventory of his prints elsewhere, which can be accessed through the following links:

Etchings #1-20 

Etchings #21-40 

Etchings #41-56 

Etchings #57-73 (including the Korean Series) 

Etchings #101-123 (smaller landscapes)

Etchings #131-143 (smaller nudes) 

Other Etchings (postcards)

Rice Planting (plate #55) by Willy Seiler

Courtesy of Artelino.com

(etching)

Japanese Children by Willy Seiler

Courtesy of F. Richard Miller

(oil painting)

Japanese Children (plate #6A) by Willy Seiler

(hand-colored etching)

This catalog is still very much a work in progress, and I welcome additional information or images, especially for plate #10 (Farmer and Mount Fuji) and #71 (Old Indian), either colored or uncolored.

Fisherwomen Dragging Net by Willy Seiler

Courtesy of Floating World Auctions

(oil painting)

Fisherwomen Dragging Net (plate #4) by Willy Seiler

(etching)

For more information on Willy's brother Rudolf Seiler and his daughter Anita Seiler, please see my separate post on these artists.  My sincere thanks to Waynor and Laurie Petrie Rogers who, in addition to providing me with numerous images of Seiler prints found in their collection, also graciously shared the information that they had amassed over the years about Seiler’s life and work.  Without such material, the working inventory that I had compiled would have been woefully incomplete, and this post would have been perfunctory at best.  Thanks also to Merrill Holmes who provided several additional salient details.  Special thanks goes to Werner R. Seiler and Anita A. Lorenz, who provided important family biographical information and corrected many errors in my earlier drafts.

Willy Seiler in front of his studio in Karuizawa (c. 1950s-early 1960s)

Courtesy of Petrie-Rogers Asian Fine Arts & Antiques

If a comment box doesn't appear below, click on this link instead: http://easternimp.blogspot.com/2016/11/welcome-to-karuizawa-etchings-of-willy.html