Sketchbook on Folk Art

Franz Zell left behind more than 30 sketchbooks, dated from 1892 to 1947. These are now kept in the archives of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (Bavarian National Museum) and the Oberammergau Museum. It is now possible to view a sketchbook digitally for the first time.

Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl (1833-1897), who is considered the scientific founder of folklore, propagated the wandering contemplation of folk culture and describes it as a "method of ethnographic fieldwork". In this spirit, Zell wandered through the Upper Bavarian and Swabian Alpine foothills, the Alps all the way to Tyrol from the 1890s. Zell travelled with his sketchbook and camera on his "countless criss-cross study trips", as he called them.

With his sketchbooks, Zell not only leaves behind regional and cultural heritage, but personal "log books". This book bears witness to Zell’s travels to Hamburg and Paris. It contains sketches of architectural details and customs from Upper Bavaria. Location information and written references provide regional classification.

Franz Zell visited a private collection in Hamburg in December 1899. There he sketched an "Altenländer wedding chair" and recorded its dimensions and details. Such sketches were then used as models for Zell’s furniture designs. In March 1900, Zell travelled to Paris and visited the Paris Medieval Museum, Musée de Cluny, now the Musée National du Moyen Âge.

The sketch of the maypole in Strasslach (today Straßlach-Dingharting) shows Zell’s excursions into the Munich countryside. He whimsically adds a verse to his sketch: "The maypole does adorn the village indeed, but also manifests its greed" – a reference to the tradition of stealing each other’s maypoles.

Michaela Thomas