Expecting The Strength By Sascha Schneider, 1904
Rudolph Karl Alexander Schneider, commonly known as Sascha Schneider (21 September 1870 – 18 August 1927), was a German painter and sculptor.
Schneider was born in Saint Petersburg. In 1881, during his childhood, his family moved to Zürich. After the death of his father, Schneider lived in Dresden, where he was a student at the Kreuzgymnasium. He studied art at Dresdner Kunstakademie beginning in 1889. In 1903 he met best-selling author Karl May, and he became the cover illustrator of May’s books (for example Winnetou, Old Surehand, Am Rio de la Plata). In 1904, Schneider was appointed professor at the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar. Here he lived together with the painter Hellmuth Jahn. Jahn began blackmailing Schneider by threatening to expose his homosexuality, which was punishable under § 175 of the penal code. Schneider fled to Italy, where homosexuality was not criminalized at that time. In Italy Schneider met painter Robert Spies, with whom he traveled through the Caucasus Mountains. He then traveled back to Germany, where he lived for six months in Leipzig before returning to Italy, where he resided in Florence. When the First World War started, Schneider returned to Germany again, taking up residence in Hellerau (near Leipzig). After 1918, he co-founded an institute called Kraft-Kunst for body building. Some of the models for his art works trained here.
Schneider, who suffered from diabetes mellitus, collapsed and died in 1927 in Swinemünde. While on a ship voyage in the vicinity of Swinemünde, he got thirsty and unknowingly drank poisonous stain remover. He was buried in the cemetery in Loschwitz, Germany.
The Feeling Of Dependence By Sascha Schneider, 1920
Gymnasion By Sascha Schneider, C. 1912
The Anarchist By Sascha Schneider, 1894
