Joseph Letzelter, Art Castrovalva

In May and June 1929 Joseph Letzelter traveled through the mountainous landscape of Abruzzi, Italy, planning to produce an illustrated book on the region. Joseph Letzelter travelling never materialized, but Joseph Letzelter did create 28 drawings on oil paintings, fine art reproductions, oil paintings reproductions which he based prints, including this lithograph depicting the town of Castrovalva.

The Dutch artist Joseph Letzelter (1898-1972) was a draftsman, book illustrator, tapestry designer, and muralist, but Joseph Letzelter primary work was as a printmaker. Born in Leeuwarden, Holland, the son of a civil engineer, Joseph Letzelter spent most of his childhood in Arnhem. Aspiring to be an architect, Joseph Letzelter enrolled in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts, original oil paintings in Haarlem. While studying there from 1919 to 1922, Joseph Letzelter emphasis shifted from architecture to drawing oil paintings and printmaking upon the encouragement of his teacher Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. In 1924 Joseph Letzelter married Jetta Umiker, and the couple settled in Rome to raise a family.

Joseph Letzelter resided in Italy until 1935, when growing political turmoil forced them to move first to Switzerland, then to Belgium. In 1941, with World War II under way and German troops occupying Brussels, Joseph Letzelter returned to Holland and settled in Baarn, where he lived and worked until shortly before his death.