In 1947, having reached the zenith of his success, Zülow set to work on a painting handbook entitled 〈Die Malfibel〉, which contained a compilation of those techniques for the decoration of everyday items that he deemed most important as examples to be followed. Using 82 illustrations, he explained six easy painting techniques that could be employed in printing and painting without elaborate equipment or preparations—and in doing so, he also conserved the aesthetic sensibility that he had acquired in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Concertina picture book From left to right: 1000 und 1 Nacht [One Thousand and One Nights], 1946, paste paper binding, pen and ink, watercolors, oil crayons; Gloria in Excelsis Deo, 1954, paste paper binding, pen and ink, watercolors © MAK/Georg Mayer.
His whole life long, Zülow remained a quintessential applied artist. Whether as a designer of fabrics and tapestries (Wiener Werkstätte) or of porcelain (Schleiss in Gmunden, Augarten Porcelain Manufactory), in his monumental frescos (the Bräuhotel in Lofer, Schärding’s town hall, Austrian Parliament), or in his designs for the fire curtain of Vienna’s Akademietheater and door decorations at the Kammerspiele in Linz: Franz von Zülow’s technical and material execution of his themes was exemplary in the fullest sense of the word. Portrait of Franz von Zülow on the beach of Sidi Bou Said, photograph, 1928 © Estate of Franz von Zülow.