The Linosaurus

It has been a bit silent recently in my Blog. The reason: the book on German Women Printmakers is finally in the phase of a proof edition. It is awaiting last and final decisions while this question of "in or out" happened recently. The book is a collection of some 500 entries (245 pages): short biographies of German printmaking women artists and their world: family, teachers, galleries, critics, printing houses, exhibitions etc....

"Collecting art without knowing anything about the artist is like collecting stamps without a catalogue".

German by family name and by heritage American printmaker Margaret Schauffler strictly does not "belong" in an index treating German Women Printmakers. But since I decided, as the sole author and editor responsible, to include American printmaker Helen Hyde because after all she'd studied with Emil Orlik, I decided to take Margaret "aboard" and include her fascinating short biography composed after I di some research in her history. I found two paintings and one print titled "Garden Gate" by her. The print is currently for sale at Paramour Fine Arts Gallery in Franklin (Mich.) USA.

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Schauffler, Margaret Reynolds

(Cleveland Ohio USA 04-06-1896 - 1994)

American painter and printmaker.

Margaret was the daughter of missionary Dr. Henry Albert Schauffler (1837-1905) and his second wife Clara Hobart (1856-1942). She graduated from Oberlin High School in 1914 and received the A.B. degree in music, with Phi Beta Kappa honors, from Oberlin College in 1918. She graduated from the Cleveland School of Art in 1922 and received an M.A. in Art from Western Reserve University in 1931. From 1923 to 1961 she taught studio art and Asian art at Oberlin College, retiring as associate professor of art.

After retiring, she taught art at Ashland College for eight years and continued giving private lessons in painting, jewelry-making and calligraphy until 1983. Many of her paintings were exhibited in Ohio galleries. A woodblock print titled “Garden Gate” in yellow, greens and blue is known (Paramour Fine prints) known showing a house and gardens.

Margarets grandfather William Gottlieb Schauffler

Her father was one of 6 sons born to American missionaries Wilhelm (William) Gottlieb Schaufler (Stuttgart, Germany 22-08-1798 – 27-01-1883 New-York) and his American wife Mary Reynolds (Lougmeadow Mass. 13-04-1802- 09-01-1895 New Rochelle, New York) while serving in Constantinople, Turkey. With his parents W.G. Schauffler had immigrated from Germany to Odessa and then Izmir and Constantinopel in Turkey in 1826 after which he made his way to the US of America, where he worked as a woodturner and instrumentmaker also studying theology. Margaret's grandmother Mary Reynold's ancestors can be traced back in Brittain to the Doomsday book describing land, possessions and owners in and before 1066. It was ordered by William the Conqueror (1028-1087).

"Sultan Ahmed Mosque" in Istanbul by unknown Fritz .......... (private coll) .

He then was sent and returned to Constantinople to work as a missionary among the Jews, the Armenians and German colony in Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire. In 1843 he founded the “Deutschen Evangelischen Gemeinde” in Istanbul. He had a career as a missionary in the Orient for close to 50 years and became famous for translating the Old Testament into Ladino,the language of the Sephardic Jews (based on Old-Spanish and Hebrew) who after being expelled from the Iberian region (Spain, Portugal, South of France) in great numbers had come to live in the Ottoman Empire, Palestine being one of its provinces. W.G. Schauffler was a woodturner and instrument maker by profession, like his father Philip Frederick Schaufflerwho was married to Carolina Henrietta Schuckart from Stuttgart in the kingdom of Würtemberg (then a duchy). With his family of 5 children he lead a company of some 400 souls emigrating from Germany to Odessa in South of Russia in 1804 to arrive in 1805. He also lived and worked in Vienna to return to the USA in 1877.

In 1886 her father Henry Schauffler and Clara Hobart founded Schauffler College in Cleveland which started as a mission to Bohemian immigrants and women interested in religious education and social work. After his first wife Clara Eastham Grey (1842-1883) who bore him 9 children, had died in 1883 Henry Schauffler in 1892 remarried the schools first teacher Clara Hobart. With her he got another three childern. In 1954, Schauffler College became the Schauffler Division of Religious and Social Work at the Oberlin Graduate School of Theology. It transferred to Defiance College in 1967.

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

What is going on here ?

Found as a "woodblock print with Indonesian fishermen" this quite good pen and ink drawing seems to represent some form of traditional, communal shore (shoal) fishing. A company of 7 wading men pulling a net, 10 men in small boats with long poles adjusting or checking nets between their boats and at the shallows halfway the shore (with settlement) static fish nets, suggesting the location has a tidal system. In the front 13 large tanks and a man supervising. The tanks suggesting the catch is to be kept alive: Shrimps ? Fish eggs ? Aquarium fish ? Researchers ? In Indonesia, Brittany or in the Lofoten ?

The artists signature possibly reads "Heyny" (Hejnij ?).: I wonder if readers have any knowledge or wise suggestions what the artist is showing us.

Jaroslav Hejny

(1918 - 1992)

Czech (Bohemian) painter and graphic artist.

Well, she did it again! Corresponding member Hannelore from Austria also solved the mystery print in before posting. It is by Jaroslav Hejny, born in Kozlov near Pacov in the South of Bohemia (Czech Republic). He studied in Prag Academy under well known Czech artists Cyril Bouda (1901-1984), Karel Lidicky (1900-1976) and Martin Salcman (1896-1979). He died in 1992 inČeských Budějovicích, South Bohemias largest city.

In 1991 a year before he died he was obviously awarded an exhibition of his work. In the background can be seen two paintings with fishermen in oil suits.

And in this Logo of a 2015 exhibition, almost 25 years later, held in Českých Budějovicích, a drawing of the same company of fishermen was used. I was under the impression that Hejny must travelled abroad to a coastal region witnessing these men at work and depicting them. But that would have been very difficult: traveling from behind the Iron Curtain. I now know (thanks again Hannelore) this was one of Hejny's (who was also a professor in Prag), special themes and topics: local "Fishermen of south Bohemia".

Hejny is showing us in detail the traditional annual December carp haul (harvest) at lake Zablatsky in South Bohemia. The carps are the centre of the traditional Czech Christmas dish. Please follow this link because I think I am not allowed to reproduce the pictures I found Googling.

http://www.gettyimages.nl/album/hooked-on-carp-czechs-begin-annual-harvest--jX6YK2Vqqk2nTokj0eGaSA#fishermen-prepare-for-the-traditional-carp-haul-at-zablatsky-pond-picture-id619445028-

Found and acquired as a "woodblock print showing Indonesian fishermen", this signed Czech pen and ink drawing is actually showing quite something else. I have no idea how the drawing ended up in the Netherlands.

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Friederich (Fritz) von Zerboni di Sposetti

(30-12- 1900 - 03-12-1958 Vienna)

Austrian (academical) painter and printmaker.

Born, probably in Vienna, as the youngest son of 7 children of "Ministerialrath", Maximilian von Zerboni di Sposetti (1856-1901) and Olga von Reimann (1863-1927), dr. of fieldmarshall Carl, Ritter von Reimann and Emilie, Freiin Kussevich von Samobor.

Hannelore (faithful corresponding researcher from Austria) also was able to solve this signature problem. She was able to read it and even managed to find a "fitting" person in the Zerboni family genealogical data.

The Sultan Ahmed-I mosque, depicted by Fritz Zerboni is also known as the Blue Mosque or Jewel of Istanbul and was built 1609-1619 during the reign of short lived Sultan Ahmed-I (1590-1617) who is buried inside.

The Austrian painter and printmaker is not mentioned in any of the artists Lexicons. The today Austrian branch of this family descends from Maximilians great grandfather Bernardino von Zerboni di Sposetti who was born, and lived, in Breslau in 1686.

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All pictures borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Frosty weaping willows ("Trauerweiden") on the Alster in Hamburg.

Ernst Einer: Feenteich, Hamburg

This lovely, large print above probably shows Hamburg Feenteich in winter. The painting is by Hamburg impressionist Ernst Eitner and titled Feenteich.

With the two other prints in my collection it documents characteristic Hamburg around 1910. See my recent Hamburg postings.

Hamburg 1911

* ----- Feenteichbrücke = entrance to the Feenteich

** ----- Uhlenhorster Fährhus (Margarete Braumüllers print).

***-------- Fernsicht-brücke (Else Zinkeisen's print) = entrance to Rondeelteich

The Monogram iKsuggests strongly it was created by Hamburg printmaker Ilse Koch (1869 - prob. 1834) although the other 9 prints I know by her hand, all flowers and vases, have a monogram IKA (Ilse Koch-Amberg). Her short biography is one of the over 400 in the upcoming book: daughter of a painter, married to painter-printmaker Hugo Amberg and sister to poster artist Walther Koch.

Entrance of the Feenteich : Feenteich-brücke am Schöne Aussicht.

Hans Meid (1883-1957): Feenteichbrücke, Hamburg

Hans Meid: Rondeelteich (very similar to Feenteich, a pond beyond the Fernsehbrücke)

Old photo's prove Feenteich (Fairy pond), with its posh villa's of Hamburgs achieved & richest situated in the Bellevue district, before the total destruction by Operation Gomorra was lined with old willow trees.

Ernst Eitner: Feenteich, Hamburg.

Ernst Eitner (1867-1955) today lovingly nicknamed "Monet of the North" was a Hamburg impressionist painter who was awarded an exhibition recently (it just ended) in Hamburg receiving the attention he never had during his life. The many paintings of the Alster region are proof of his love for the area where he worked lived and loved.

Sadly there wasn't a catalogue to accompany the exhibition. But Googling pictures will give you an idea the Monet comparison is not totally without reason. He was one of the local artists commissioned by Alfred Lichtwark (1842-1914) the visionary first director, with a budget, to create paintings of Hamburg "en plain air" to stock his Kunsthalle Museum.

Eitner was also a teacher in Valeska Rövers painting school (at nearby Glockengießerswal) teaching many young (Jewish) women.

Either with his women students in 1897

Ilse Koch attended Hamburg "Kunstgewerbeschule" (Arts & Craft school) no doubt to be also trained as a teacher. She moved in the circles of Käthe Kollwitz and the great Lovis Corinth and is mentioned as a mainly a self-taught artist. Which is not difficult to understand looking more closely to her family and relatives. But fat chance she knew Ernst Eitner.......

Fritz Flinte (1876-1963) painted picturesque Feenteich too, and Paul Kayser (1869-1942), Eitners colleague in the painting school and known for his low esteem of women painters, painted the view from its classes overlooking Lombardsbrücke and Alster .

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All pictures borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Dora (Dorry) Kahn-Weyl

Dutch painter and mannequin

(1896-1981)

In a local sale I stumbled over this undated pastel signed Dorry Kahn. It could well be showing cloud shrouded Lago Maggiore in Italy. It certainly is not the Netherlands.

In a 1970 news paper article the artist, Dorry Kahn, claimed she had been painting for 30 years but I found an earlier article (below, 1941) stating she had been successfully exhibiting in 1940 (maybe at Hirsch's). In 1970 she also explains being fascinated and occupied with monotype printmaking "with glas plate and Japanese papers".

Sylvain Kahn

Dorry Kahn, the daughter of a Jewish diamond cutter, was the elegant wife of Henri René Kahn (1888-1970), the later heir of posh Hirsch & Cie, elite fashion house founded 1882 by his father Sylvain Kahn (1857-1927) (above). Sylvain Kahn's partner in Hirsch (and also his brother im law), Sally Berg (1857-1924) never married.

The beautiful newly erected Hirsch building (1912) to this day is proudly situated at Amsterdam Leidseplein. In the decades before the two business partners bought all the surrounding old buildings around their growing and highly successful enterprise. The fashion house is no more, but the monumental building is. Although the building, the owners and the business survived WW-II many Jewish workers, and customer, did not. The firm never recovered to its former glory, the decline obvious in a dramatically changed world. The final end came in 1976.

In 2012 the Apple store moved into the listed building. The times are a'changing.

Dorry Kahn and her family survived Nazi persecution. In 1927 her elegant portrait was painted by famous modernist Jan Sluyters (1881-1957). He was very attracted by the world of beautiful women, clients and models, surrounded by the colorful elegance at Hirsch's.

His clientèle for a portrait will have been the same as Hirsch's. In the 1990's Dorry was mentioned in the memories of lesbian Frieda Belinfante (1904-1995) having an affair. (In Toni Bouman: "Een schitterend vergeten leven" a glorious forgotten life).

Bellinfante, daughter of Jewish pianist Aron Belinfante (1870-1924) and active during WW-II in the Dutch resistance later became known as the worlds first female conductor of a professional symphony orchestra (she immigrated after WW-II to America): the Orange County Philharmonic Orchestra (Los Angeles USA).

Since 1900 Sluyters "old school" Amsterdam impressionist colleague Isaac Israels (1864-1934) painted also at Hirsch's: the studios, the models, the workers and the clients. In 1916 he painted the twins Ippy and Gertie Wehman (b. 1895) internationally well known and Hirsch fashion models.

In 1916 Israels painted the portrait of Greetje Zelle (1877-1917) better known as Mata Hari, femme fatale, mistress, Frysian lassie growing up in Leeuwarden.

Her tumultuous life ended executed as a spy by a French firing squad a year later in 1917. It is said Mata Hari was offered a modeling job by Kahn. She shopped at Hirsch' as did our Queen Emma.

In the immense building besides all the departments, the fashion workers also were situated the studios of Jacob Merckelbach (1877-1942) the best known Dutch society and royalty photographer.

In 1941 Dorry was photographed (below) by Julius Guggenheimer (1885-1943) a Jewish refugee, fled 1938 from Memmingen in Bavaria to Amsterdam for a newspaper article. The article mentions a successful exhibition "a year ago" so probably before the summer of 1940 when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands. It was probably taken in their home in posh De Laraisse-straat.

Guggenheim's two children survived the Holocaust by fleeing to London, Julius and his wife Nellie did not.

Although they were granted visa for Honduras, they were arrested, deported and murdered in Sobibor 1943. Guggenheimer, his work and talent recently rediscovered, was awarded an exhibition in his native Memmingen last year (2016) see here *.

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

This print is probably my last irresistible junk shop acquisition of 2017 found this last week of the year. The signature reads Corrie Koot, a not common not uncommon name. Not a "listed" artist either. It is dated 1978, and showing the Arnheim Rhine bridge a few years after its completion in 1937. It is numbered 2/8 and large (sheet 50 x 75 cm.)

First result of my initial research into the printmaker:
1) Corrie Koot (born around 1931) who was a professional Yogo teacher living in the Hague in the 1960-70's.
2) Corrie Koot, a religious person or non. There is a relation to the Egmond monastery workshops: which was the base of Lioba Michel who produced prints on similar paper, in similar XXL size and in similar execution. Follow the link to an earlier post.

Rhine bridge 1937

And 3) Corrie Koot who was a pastor(resse) in Arnhem in the 1990's (which is the location of subject of the print).
It could well be Corrie Koot 1, 2 and 3 are one and the same person.

Lioba Michel: Marseille harbour

What I'm quite certain about: it was made after this 1937 photograph showing the Rhine Bridge (today named John Frost Bridge, destroyed after disastrous allied forces Operation Market Garden by the Germans and rebuild soon after WW-II.

Rebuilding the Rhine Bridge at Arnheim

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Before continuing discussing and sharing vintage woodblock prints and forgotten printmakers from the past with this first posting of 2018 I keep my promiss to printmaker Mart de Niet (1952), a retired mathematics teacher and amateur painter to share some of his recent sea side and dunes prints which I happened to discover last year.

Living walking distance from the beach and the dunes in the Hague (NL) Mart has never to travel far for inspiration. These prints show that after recently following a summer course in printmaking (in Groningen Academy) lead by professional contemporary Frisian etcher Reinder Homan (1950) and well known woodblock printmaker Siemen Dijkstra (1968) the first results can be quite good.

Experimenting with paint, different inks and colors and practicing cutting and printing skills these prints also show the joy of printmaking and an inspiration for 2018 to many readers of this humble Blog I sincerely hope.

My book on German women printmakers born 1850-1900 is in its final stages and almost ready for subscription: 300 pages (text only) of short biographies treating German women printmakers born in the 19th century who were involved in woodblock printmaking 1900-1935. It is written in the English language. A last moments decision was: to add a chapter with contemporary Dutch printmaking sisters.

This impulsive initiative resulted in three extra pages: there were just so few women artists to compare which made me curious enough to decide writing and adding a complete Dutch printmakers (born in the 19th century) section instead. Together these odd 100 extra short biographies in 30 pages are indispensable for anyone who is collecting or is interested in Dutch (relief) printmaking and printmakers 1900-1940. There's also a Baltic section, a Russian section and a Scandinavian section. I was informed a (possibly the) final book on British printmakers is expected to appear soon.

From this "extra" section I today share this forgotten short-lived printmaker and his short biography.

Jacques Jeichienus Ottens

(Bellingwolde 15-10-1895 – 22-11-1930 Bellingwolde)
Dutch painter, graphic artist, poster designer and printmaker.

Jacques and Martha Ottens-Hüfler

Son of merchant Hendrik Ottens (1859-1952) and Sophia Sachs (1861-1917). His mother was from local provincial Jewish descent. His grandparents were Jan Ottens (1820-1890) married to Jeichien Suichies (1827-1916), and Jacques Loëhman Sachs (1825-1911) married to Rebekka de Jonge (1821-1902) explaining his highly unusual first names. He had a sister Bertha Ottens and a brother Jan Ottens. He married Martha Margaretha Hüfler (1896-1985), daughter of Dr. Ernst Emil Hüfler (1863-1927) of whom I know nothing. Since no records of any artistic education, study or training are known I assume he was mainly a self taught artist.

In 1919 he is mentioned in a secret-service report of people with "communist sympathies" living with his brother Jan in Bellingwolde and also having an apartment in the Hague. Designed posters for the NSDAP (Dutch national socialist labour party).

Known for woodblock portraits of NSDAP leader Pieter Jelles Troelstra (1860-1930) and of Karl Marx (1818-1883)

His bathing nude print was obviously inspired by Felix Valloton's (1865-1925) 1894 well known print “Trois Baigneuses” (collected in New-York MOMA and Amsterdam van Gogh Museum).

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Anna Bähker

Still unidentified etcher and printmaker.

Living in Berlin 1921-30, member of the VdBK.

Probably living for some time in the artist colony of Nidden.

Anna Bähker is one of the artists who, in spite of all my efforts remains to this day a very unknown artist: I still have no idea who she actually was. Although I discovered the identity of so many obscured artists over the past years (all revealed in the book) Anna Bähker is still an enigma although her prints regularly show up in Ebay and other auctions. But gathering all small pieces one day will be successful and helpful in clearing her from obscurity.

She is best known for the half a dozen prints showing (Baltic) fishing boats (more about these prints and their location in a later posting). She has been obviously working and/or staying in Nidden where printmaker Daniel Staschus and his wife lived. It is situated on the Curonian-Spit an ice age remnant, a long sandy stretch of dunes situated in Prussia's Baltic sea, now Kaliningrad/Königsberg-Lithuania)

Recently and shortly after each other I found these two etchings (German :"Radierung") they are the first examples I ever saw other then her woodblock prints. Unlike many other printmakers I've never seen an oil painting by her.

The first is said to be (possibly) showing "Worpswede" which is a picturesque village and artist "colony" near Bremen. The title is "Am Kanal" (at the canal). She possibly visited Worpswede artist colony because it is not far from her woodblock print titled "Altenländer Fleet" (canal Altes Land)

"Das Altes Land" is however the region situated on the west bank of river Elbe, north-west of Hamburg. The old country, "laid dry" centuries before (since 12th century) by Dutch settlers and today Germanys fruits and vegetables garden.

The other one (very small only 6 x 8 cm) is highly interesting because it is a mirrored version of her best known woodblock print "Stadttor" (town gate) which I would very much like to find and have one day. And of course finding out where this gate is located would be even better.

I can offer many fine works (in every international discipline) for swapping or trade if you happen to have or know a decent copy of this print that is on my wishlist for my collection of German Women Printmakers.

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

This etching, possibly of historic importance and in very good condition definitely is showing Brussels, its Town Hall ("Hôtel de Ville" at the Groote Markt) dominating in the centre clearly visible under a 45* angle and a large wood supported construction site the obvious subject of this great composition in the best French tradition.

Although I searched I have not been able to find any photographs of a fitting similar construction site in Brussels around this date (1900-1915).

The artist shows construction work of a viaduct in a direction parallel with the front the Town Hall. It could very well show the building of Viaduct Rue Gray in the Rue Couronne (Kroonstraat), a double traverse of both the road and (in a second smaller and lower bridge) the railway from and towards central station. As seen by the artist from approximately the Zwemkunststraat (quartier Elsene).

I invite readers and passers-by and all who know better to identify the signature, and monogram TV or RV (Vande......)

This etching, a great diagonal composition, is with many more fine graphic works available for swapping and trading to further my collection of German women printmakers in a friendly way.

This lovely (framed) Russian lithographic drawing found its way to me today.

Hopefully there's a reader who can translate the attached label and there's an artist name to be found in there. Somewhere.

Some years ago I found a woodblock print showing "Lake Baikal in the evening (1991)" with a similar label created by Ukrainian artist Andrey Karthashov (born 1974 ?), according to the information then found it was part of an European traveling exhibition of Russian (Ukranian) artists. I showed it here (or follow the label below).

Within a day combining three different sources from Germany (thank you Ulrich), Austria (thank you Hannelore) and Moscow (thank you Irina) the artist and some details about the tulips print were disclosed: the incredible possibilities of a friendly internet.

"March Tulips"

Vladimir Vasilyevich Averyanov (b. 1952) was an assistant Professor the Department of Graphichs in the Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute (named after painter Vasily Ivanisowitch Surikov (1848-1916) in 1991 and according to the link still is working.

A quick internet research did not reveal much more about this artists but I found a Boris Yakovlevich Averyanov (1931-1973 who was involved in lithographic and linocut printmaking, maybe a family relative, because Boris Averyanov was also working in Surikov Art Academy.

This print and the lake Baikal woodblock print by Leonid Mikhailovich Kartashov (1935-2005) graphic artist, book illustrator and member of the Union of artists of the USSR, Moscow (and not as presumed before Andrei Kartashov) (were both printed in the "Graphic Art Workshop of the Moscow Art Fund" in 1991 and possibly were traveling with a European Exhibition or (selling) Tour.

But I also I remember visiting foreign art students (were they ?) were a common sight 25 years ago trying to sell paintings and other works of art house to house.

(All pictures embiggen by mouse-click)

Clara Telge

German painter and illustrator.

(Shanghai 19-03-1870 - 25-02-1947 Hamburg)

Here follows what I came to know about the artist Clara Telge and I invite readers and passers-by to send all they know about this forgotten artist and her family. To my knowledge she not known as a printmaker.

Less then a handful of paintings by her hand can be found in the Internet. I stumbled over Clara Telge while she came to paint in "das Alte Land" researching another artist printmaker, Anna Bähker who, I discovered a few weeks ago, also visited this picturesque region just West of Hamburg.

What I do know is Clara was born in 1870 in Shanghai where her father Carl Bernard Telge had started an important trading house on “the Bund”, the strip of land in Shanghai along Huangpu River.

Bernard Telge came to Shanghai the moment it was allowed to foreign companies to settle and open business in China following the opening of the Chinese market after the 1842 Treaty of Nangking and when England finally ended the Chinese Opium wars: in the early 1860’s steaming from Hamburg or Bremen.

Shanghai: The Bund

Telge’s trading company was involved in the construction of China's infrastructure: steel bridges and railways and the selling of torpedos to China’s imperial navy as well as importing Prussian railway steam-engines and was also active in China’s (coal) mining, owning mines and recruiting German mining engineers.

Paul Kayser: Teacher in and view from "Malschule Valeska Röver" in Hamburg.

Students in Valeska Rövers painting school.

Going by the names of Clara’s no doubt private painting teachers her fathers business must have been as successful as she was talented: returned from China she studied in Hamburg at Valeska Rövers paintings school (above) while in Berlin she became a master student of Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth and was allowed to study in Paris with Lucien Simon.

Please send all you may know about this Telge family. In Berlin at the time was active a Paul Telge a famous jeweller and jewellery designer admitted to the Rumanian court of King Carol-I and Queen Elisabeth. During his reign (1866-1881) King Carol encouraged and “imported” many artists and craftsmen from Germany/Prussia (many from Hamburg) to his Kingdom. More about this you can read in the book.

I met Clara Telge visiting and painting around 1910. Like so many of her artistic sisters, not much about her life and career is delivered to us in the textbooks or artist lexicons. She was there to paint while staying, for many years as a guest in the house of Pastor (referent) August Meyer in Borstel a rural community in a picturesque district close to Hamburg.

Clara is not known as a printmaker but she is known by an illustrated with watercolours booklet she created privately and exclusively for the children of the Meyer family. The once private booklet with these great illustrations was published in 2004 in a limited edition: "Ein Altenländer Bilderbuch" für große und kleine Pastorenkinder".

I also learned the Meyer residence in the village of Borstel also received other Liebermann students: Alma del Banco and her friend Gretchen Wohlwil but also Clara’s sister (?) and nephews and nieces (?) from Berlin (as a biographer would I love to know their names....).

Clara Telge: Helgoland

One of the very few paintings by Clara I was able to trace: View on Helgoland, a strategic rocky North Sea island and Ice age remnant just north of Bremen. Helene Mass was here obviously (above) and one of my favorite German impressionist painters Leonhard Sandrock (below).

“Das Alte Land”, today Germanys largest fruit producing district consisting of former marshlands claimed from the sea by 12^th century Dutch settlers was also the favourite subject of painter and printmaker (and Emil Orlik student) Hans Förster (1885-1966) a native from Hamburg and awarded an exhibition in Hamburg Altona Museum that was extended until spring 2018.

More details about Clara Telge are mentioned in her short biography, one of the hundreds I’ve collected in my book that will finally be published later this month in a private and limited edition as a Liber Amicorum (book for friends) containing over 300 pages of short biographies of German, Scandinavian, Russian, Baltic and Dutch women printmakers active 1900-1935.

Pictures embiggen by mouse-click

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Please read next posting for finding the location of the "Alte Kirche" print.

After recently finding another example by this printmaker in the Internet I decided to launch a renewed effort trying to solve this old problem and mystery.

Years ago I found this Maya the Bee ("Biene Maja") print with "unleserliche" (illegible) signature. Maybe Martin Erich Philipp (1887-1978) gave him/her the inspiration for this print.

Since then, I saw a several others with the same signature which I to this day was never able to read properly or decipher.

These prints are maybe not considered belonging to the highest regions of sophistication and artistic printmaking and probably are best described as "decorational". But they definitely have a certain charm and were never expensive. The flower prints are very reminding of Detmold printmaker Ernst Rötteken (1882-1945) (right) who's mission in life it was to provide Detmold households with "approved" yet affordable Art.

But now this "Lohe, alte Kirche" surfaced. Assuming this print is not a phantasy composition it may hold a new clue to finally revealing the identity of this printmaker. Although the church, situated at the end (or beginning) of a small village street ("Dorfstrasse") is quite characteristic I have not been able, roaming the Internet for Schleswig church towers, to pin-point its location yet.

Since the print surfaced in Cuxhaven, North of Hamburg and the bee print was found near Kiel (with 12 years in between) not far away but on the other side of river Elbe this could be a clue to a northern (possibly Schleswig-Holstein) artist.
I have not been able to find a possible "candidate" (surname starting with a C. ?) in either "Lexicon Schleswig-Holstein Künstlerinnen" (Ulrike Wolff-Thomson) nor in "der Neue Rump" (Hamburg artists) (Maike Bruhns) both considered sources of importance and "weight".

"Lohe" could point to a village in Schleswig-Holstein (near Kiel), but the church "does not fit". Maybe with the help of readers who are known locally it is now possible to finally identify this mystery printmaker.

Left: unidentified printmaker -Right: Ernst Rötteken (1882-1945)

Gentian (Enzian): Martin Erich Philipp

(All pictures from my personal collection).

Within a few hours after my request for help both faithful readers Wolfgang in Frankfurt and Hannelore in Austria succeeded in finding the actual church to the print.

Lehe, and not Lohe, now a part of Bremerhaven at the mouth of river Wezer, century ago a rural village.

* Lehe, now part of Bremerhaven, ** Cuxhaven, were the print was found.

The church actually is not only an "old church" as the title suggests but it is locally known as "Alte Kirche" or "Dionysius-Kirche".

Thank you Wolfgang and Hannelore.

Lehe and its church, situated at the mouth of river Wezer in 1604.

What remains is the name of the printmaker, but I'm confident this will be solved in time too.

After helping and solving many an identification problem (like "Lehe, Alte Kirche" in before posting in Wolfgang in Frankfurt asks the help of readers and passers by.

This etching, with "illegible" (better: not yet recognized) signature was found in Budapest on one of his hunts. The look with wich the subject of this portrait addresses the drawer (and the viewer) is not to be forgotten. Great atmosphere and fine portrait.

All help and suggestions are welcomed.

The atmosphere the unknown artist creates reminds me of the prints by Dutch printmakers Hidde Dirks Nijland (1881-1955) who often choose the waterfront and its (seated, sleeping) "inhabitants" who always seem to be in a state of "introspection": thoughts on life ?

His seated "Indische Gasten", returned "home" pensioner planters from the Dutch Indies in the Hague leads me to Emil Orlik ..........

Clara Telge (1870-1942)

(II)

Hamburg & Friends

Clara Telge, here seen painting at the banks of river Elbe, probably just outside Klein Borstel (now part of Jork) and accompanied by one of the Meyer children, 6 km opposite and downstream Hamburg. She would like so many painting women stay unmarried and without children.

Three weeks ago I had never heard of Clara Telge, just stumbling over her researching painter/printmaker Anna Baehker who obviously visited das Alte Land (Altenlande) near Hamburg. An etching proving she was there. As a "native" Hamburg painter Clara is only "mentioned by name" in some of the important Artist Lexicons, she has no entry in Wikipedia let alone a monograph seems to exist. Works or pictures are very scarcely found in the Internet or auction catalogues: she seems, very undeservedly, to be almost completely forgotten and obscured.

Pastor Meyer's St. Nicolaikirche in picturesque Klein Borstel

We found however her talent was highly appreciated and recognized a century ago. Today a new episode and account of our research, a joined effort together with Hannelore in Austria to extract as much from the digital world to be able to create and start her short-biography. The amazing discoveries we found about her and her family we intend to share and report in this Blog. If you've found these postings, please send all you may know about Clara and the Hamburg Telge family for sharing.

In the booklets preface, reprinted in a strictly limited edition, it was mentioned colleague painters Gretchen Wohlwill and Alma del Banco also stayed in the Meyer residence (see Anna Telge part I). Gretchen (Grete) Wohlwill is known to have painted on the nearby Isle of Finkenwerder (now the International Airbus Assembling Works), and del Banco from the heights of Altona.

Gretchen Wohlwill: "Heu-ernte" in Finkenwerder"

Alma del Banco: "Blick von Blankenese über die Elbe". Seen from where she lived 1938-1943.

* Borstel, ** Finkenwerder, *** Altona/Flottbeck

Read about Finkenwerder and river Elbe in several older postings using the search function upper left (type "Finkenwerder") or follow the labels attached this post, meeting many fine artists and great paintings in Hamburg.

30 years later in a 1942 Hamburg Adress books I found Clara, Alma and Gretchen mentioned in the same page. Clara then lived Baron Voghtstrasse in "Klein Flottbeck", a posh quarter just outside the centre of Hamburg: the house seems to be still there. In 1930 she was mentioned (Dresslers Kunsthandbuch) living, like Gretchen Wohlwill, in Eppendorf north of the Alster basin and near the heart of Hamburg. Alma lived and worked in the heart of Hamburg at Theaterstrasse but moved to Blankenese in 1938 when her only brother died.

She lived not far from Clara and not far from the Süllberg Terrace with Restaurant Jakob, where her Berlin teacher Max Liebermann also painted the view over river Elbe, before she took her own life in 1943, being Jewish and terrified of the Nazis.

"Fräulein Telge und Fräulein Wohlwill" were mentioned together in 1922, their paintings recognized and admired as "talented and good" and recommended for buying, collecting or exhibition abroad by one of Matisse's first students Hungarian modernist and Fauvist ("wild ones") painter Csaba Vilmos Perlrott (1880-1955) ("Kunst ist Spiel und tiefer Ernst" by Anke Munster; 2003).

Garden and trees by Alma del Banco & Vilmos Perlrott

Nude drawings by Wohlwill & Vilmos Perlrott

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Next posting Clara Telge (part III): a surprise and meeting the family in China.

Clara Telge

(1870 - 1942)

(Part III)

Hina-matsuri

Co-incidence or serendipity ?

This wonderful painting emerged in auction in the first week of March while I was still deeply involved in my research into the life of forgotten Hamburg painter Clara Telge. Sold: and although I tried, sadly not to me. I was too involved reading and discovering the 1922 remarks by Hungarian Fauvist Csaba Vilmos Perlrott (1880-1955) about the quality of Clara's work (see before posting). I think the quality in this painting is what he meant and was referring to. I'm not an expert on paintings but would it be far fetched to recognize the free and impressionist hand of her Berlin teacher Lovis Corinth (1858-1925) ?

Loves Corinth: portrait of an older lady

A double co-incidence because on first (European) glance it is "just" a painting of "some Chinese Dolls". The 4 puppets arranged and displayed before a mirrored mantelpiece, most likely in Clara's home and possesion, are actually showing members of the imperial Japanese family.

Detail of Clara Telge's painting.

The tradition setting up or installing a home altar with the beautifully dressed puppets the third day of the third monthis deeply imbedded in Japanese culture and is called Hinamatsuri (Hina-matsuri, 雛祭り). It happens to co-incide or is also called "Girl-day" or Princess-day . Read here (follow the link) all about this history and tradition in Kyoto National Museum.

Although Clara was born in Shanghai (in China) and her father had a long career and thriving business in China, the moment I discovered this painting I also found the link to Japan which I shall reveal in next episode and posting.

As this "Hina-matsuri" is only the third example of an oil painting by Clara known to me I invite readers and passers-by sending other examples for sharing as well as details about her life and family helping me to compose her short biography.

Next: Part IV, Clara's father in the Orient

--------------

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly and educational and non commercial use only.

I am beginning to understand Clara Telge could well be one of the finest rediscovered ("retrouvé") artists among my private collection of mostly forgotten German woman artists. Today in this Part IV I share some more interesting findings of my research. Many small parts had to come deep from the Internet and puzzling them together is creating a truly fascinating story.

The earliest mentioning of Clara's father Bernard Telge (of who I did not find any specifics in Hamburg yet other then I was able to confirm he had a merchant brother Georg Jr. Telge and his family). I found Telges presence in Yokohama Japan in 1860 as "special agent" of the Hamburg trading firm of Pustau (more later) where he had been the subject of international diplomatic problems and worries which had to do with his rude and uncivilized behavior in Yokohama (in the late 1850's !).

The problems, concerns and worries he'd caused were discussed as far away as in London parliament and were also recorded by the leader of the German East-Asia expedition diplomat Friedrich Albrecht Baron zu Eulenburg (1815-1881) who, returned from his expedition to Japan, was to serve as Prussian minister of the Interior (1862-1878)

Since the 16th and 17th centuries several European countries traded with China and Japan but because the Japanese had enough of the constant attempts to convert Japan to Christianity it had limited trading countries to the Dutch and Chinese.

America after annexing California had gained access to the Pacific and seeking trade and coal (bunker) harbors to the West had send two semi military expeditions to Japan to, if necessary with the use of military force, make Japan to open the island to trading. In the second Perry expedition of 1854/55 German/American artist William (Wilhelm) Heine (1827-1885) who was working in the Americas was assigned to the staff as an artist drawer.

Wilhelm Heine: The second Perry expedition 1855 anchored in Yokohama

How the Japanese saw the American and Europeans traders and settlers was also depicted in several woodblock prints. Prints like this were first seen publicly in the Paris World Exhibitions only one or two decades later starting European woodblock printmaking at the end of the 19th century.

On his return to Germany in the late 1850's Wilhelm Heine with his American expedition expertise was able to persuade the Prussian government to send a German-Prussian expedition claiming and securing "their share" of future business and to avoid monopoly by America and other trading countries. Thus the Prussian Eulenberg expedition was set up. Again the artist Wilhelm Heine travelled to Japan, China and Siam but now at the service of his native Germany.

The German ships of the 1859 East Asia Expedition.
On arrival one ship with its entire crew was lost in a typhoon.

A decade before the first private trading mission from Germany to China ever was organized by Hamburg businessman Carl von Pustau (1820-1879). The operation was co-financed by Hamburg wealthiest banker Solomon Heine (1767-1844). He was the uncle, and benefactor, of Germans greatest Poet: Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). It was this firm that had send Bernard Telge as "special agent" from Hamburg to Japan probably in the late 1850s.

Shanghai 1860: "the Bund" location of the foreign trading concessions.

It was said Telge more or less fled from Japan to China in 1860, his position in Japan grown intolerable and impossible. Diplomats described the foreign traders in Yokohama as "scum of the art". In Shanghai things probably came to rest and obviously Bernard Telge soon started for himself as the Telge (and later Telge & Schroeter) Company is known since then.

Shanghai: the Bund

He would build an office at "the Bund" a strip of land, a concession along river Huangpu where foreign countries were allowed to establish businesses (and living communities, clubs, schools, hospitals etc..): Shanghai's freeport after the Chinese emperor signed and ratified the treaty in 1860. Bernard Telge would lead one of the most successful international businesses, the Shanghai-Hamburg import & export, contracting, mining and building & construction firm for the next 40 years.

Shanghai: the firm of Bernard Telge (& Schroeter) in the late 19th century

Telge & Schroeter: possibly Bernard Telge and Hermann Schroeter)

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

More to follow soon. Readers and passers-by are invited to send all they might know about Clara Telge and her Hamburg (and possibly Berlin) relatives in an attempt to create a first short biography of Clara Telge.

Margaret Schauffler: in or out ?

What is going on ?

Jaroslav Hejny (1918 - 1992): Traditional carp harvest in South Bohemia

Fritz von Zerboni di Sposetti: what's in a name ?

Ilse Koch: Hamburg Feenteich in winter

Dorry Kahn, Lago Maggiore and some related things....

Corrie Koot: last find in 2017

Mart de Niet: Dutch dunes and sea side inspiration for 2018

Jacques Jeichienus Ottens: What's in a name ?

Anna Bähker, printmaker in "das Altes Land".

Brussels construction works around 1915 by not identified artist.

Help requested: Russian translation

"March Tulips" by Vladimir Vasilyevich Averyanov

Clara Telge: visiting "das Alte Land".

Unidentified artist: Lohe in Schleswig ?

Lehe ,"Alte Kirche" (not Lohe), near Bremerhaven

Wolfgang asks help of readers

Clara Telge (part II): Hamburg & friends

Clara Telge (part III): Hina Matsuri

Clara Telge (part IV): starting business in China and what had happened shortly before.