Theodore Schmuz-Baudiss
Theodore Schmuz-Baudiss is especially noted for the underglaze painting of landscapes on vases, tile panels, plaques and display plates. A painter and ceramist, he was born in Herrnhut, Saxony, and trained in Munich from 1879-1890. According to an art critic writing in 1898, Schmutz-Baudiss came to make pots by accident. He was on a plein air painting vacation but, because the weather was bad, he stepped into the shop of the village potter. Intrigued, he took his first lesson on the wheel "just to kill time." He later studied ceramics at the Diessen pottery in Ammersee, Bavaria.
In 1897 Schmuz-Baudiss was a cofounder of and designer for workshops in Munich and from 1901-02, a designer for Swaine & Co. Describing his work of that period, art critics reported that Schmuz-Baudiss's ceramics were fully equal to those of France and Belgium. He was praised for his new forms and manner of ornament. His ornaments at that time were cut with a knife somewhat after the fashion of cameos. For further tinting he used chemical compositions of his own devising.
Still Schmuz-Baudiss 's best known work was done at the Royal Porcelain Factory (known as KPM) in Berlin, where he was art director from 1902 to 1926. Believing that KPM's wares were behind the times, he encouraged the use of motifs drawn from nature. Seeking the most harmonious combination of forms and decors, he abandoned the practice of making preliminary sketches on paper, instead drawing freehand directly on the form. His compositions were asymmetrical and tended toward dark outlines, in the Japanese fashion that had by then been completely assimilated in Europe. His icy almost translucent palette was influenced by Scandinavian wares, particularly those coming from Rörstrand in Sweden and Royal Copenhagen in Denmark.
