In the autumn of 2020 the Dresden Contemporary Art gallery mounted a retrospective exhibition of Max Schwimmer’s work titled Max Schwimmer und der heitere Eros (Max Schwimmer and his cheerful Eros), an apt title covering his erotic work in a variety of media including painting, drawing and book illustration.

The exhibition was a collaboration between the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig and the Leipzig Municipal Libraries, which have been managing the Max Schwimmer estate since 1995. This estate includes 72 paintings, 30 gouaches, 1,494 watercolours, 1,880 drawings, and 2,335 book illustrations, as well as biographical documents, autographs, and letters from artist friends. The books illustrated by Max Schwimmer are documented almost completely. As early as the 1960s 1,800 volumes from the Schwimmer Library, including first editions, primarily of literature from the 1920s, and copies dedicated to the artist, were donated to the City Library. The collections of the Museum of Fine Arts include about a dozen paintings, outstanding drawings and illustrations, a collection of illustrated love letters, and the artist’s complete prints.

Here we show a representative selection of Schwimmer’s work in roughly chronological order, demonstrating the breadth of his talent and the warmth and wit he brought to his art.