Sunday 30 December 2012

Carl Thiemann and some Dachau colleagues


To all readers:
Best Wishes for 2013

In this last posting of 2012 I'd intended writing a report of my virtual visit to Dachau (where I met Carl Olof Petersén discusssed in before posting) and of course running inevitably into printmaker Carl Thiemann (1881-1966).

Since this blog is not meant to be about world famous printmakers and other artists who already have been subject of more scholarly investigation I have been seriously in doubt whether to continue with todays posting. 

Thiemann upper, Ludwig Dill lower 

Adding something worthwhile reading (and sharing rarely seen prints) to the web that wasn’t previously there, or presenting some new context  is one of the rules and criteria I try to maintain after I've started this Blog following my personal discoveries.


Clockwise: Carl Thiemann, Ludwig Dill, Adolf Hölzel and Arthur Langhammer: Dachau moor and birches. The compositional meaning of every bend in the water and in the tree trunks has been subject of some kind of professional discussion. 

In the beginning, before Thiemann and Walter Klemm arrived in 1908 there was this trio of friends, painting and teaching in Dachau: the colorist Arthur Langhammer (1854-1901) who died young, theorist and later abstract artist  Adolf Hölzel (1853-1934) who left in 1905 and Ludwig Dill (1848-1940) who was never to leave and rediscovered the Dachau landscape. 
Thiemann and Ludwig Dill

Langhammer and Hölzel were very influenced after visiting Claude Monet (1840-1926) in Paris but it was Dill, a master of light and shadow, who came closest to Monet (poplars and haystacks) and van Gogh (cypresses and pines) concerning the series of outdoor created paintings of Dachau moor and its birches. Hölzel returning every summer to teach in his New Dachau Painting School.
Thiemann and Carl Moll (1861-1945) who worked in Vienna at the time

Reading about the art colony in Dachau and its painter-teachers and looking up their paintings I think it is nice to see and compare the things that awoke my curiosity trying to figure out how these artist and the landscape may have influenced each other and later students.

"Alte Kanalbrücke Dachauer moor", woodblock and painting by Carl Thiemann etching by Carl Felber (1880-1932). Felber, a painter etcher, shared the same teachers as Thiemann and also settled in Dachau and worked along the Mediteranian and Adriatic sea coast where teachers artists and students from Dachau and München moved to in summer. Felbers work of Dachau moors I intend showing   soon. 
Workmens houses along the canal by Carl Felbers.

There was Ferdinand Mirwald (1872-1948), an artist who also moved with his young family permanently to Dachau, arriving at the same time as Thiemann and Klemm in 1908. He was famed for his color woodblock prints although most of his work was lost and surviving prints are extremely rare. 
Left Mirwald, right Thiemann: Dachau, and Dachau moor canal.

Although the landscape around Dachau, its moors and waterways obviously had the same attraction to all painting artists todays availability and easy access of the internet of so many pictures makes it tempting to try and compare them.
 In later years the use of color changed dramatically in Thiemann's prints.

In the case of the printmaker Carl Thiemann it is astonishing to see how he was able to keep up with his painting colleagues and teachers in capturing the atmosphere of the place and its surroundings even with the limitations presented by the medium of the multi colored woodblock print. 
Carl Thiemann (1881-1966)

 Carl Johne (1887-1959)

Thiemann's birches obviously were an inspiration to Dutch printmaker Piet Rackwitz (1892-1968) whom I shall present in due time.


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

18 comments:

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    1. Thank you, Karen. We'll keep in touch in 2013.

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  2. Hi Gerrie,
    great pieces for me, extremely enjoyable today at that warm almost hot end of 2012. Returning yesterday from Norddeutschland, driving through the "Alleen" and passing the Schaalsee reservate I had tree flashes again and again and found them again in your selection of printing efforts, unpredictably formed pine trees at water borders, birch trees, and wet streets bordered by trees rflecting the blus sky in the low winter sun light. These will be things to get hands on soon. So a comment at least once for all of your gifts.
    Cheers Hans

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    1. Hallo Hans, und danke, thank you for your kind comment. Best wishes for you, your loved ones and your Blog.

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  4. Gerrie,

    I've just returned from Cologne to Olching - 8km from Thiemann's house in Dachau - to find your lovely post. Makes me feel like home to see all thesee beautiful paintings and prints that show the Dachauer Moor in all its facets.

    ein frohes neues Jahr, Dir und Deiner Familie!

    Klaus

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    1. Danke, thank you Klaus. Best wishes for you and your loved ones too. I know it's near your back yard, and wha's even better: there's more to come. Just today I discovered some great stuff about Thiemann and an illusive pupil. So stay tuned in 2013. Thanks for the support in 2012.

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  5. lovely graceful alive trees. Painting a trees portrait is serious business. See Gustav Baumann, Sante Fe, New Mexico for some excellent wood block prints of like kind and delightfulness.
    Annie Dunne,
    Leiden, The Netherlands

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  6. Yes, Thiemann is the treeman among the printmakers, isn't he? Another interesting artist who concentrates on birch trees is Anton Pavlenko. He was born in the Ukraine and lives in the States now. He made a series of paintings entitled "Branches", which you can easily find on his website. In my opinion, he really captures the spirit of those trees - in other words, his paintings are absolutely mind-blowing! So, all those tree-lovers out there: check him out, if you're interested.

    Klaus

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  7. Thank you for your wonderful posts! Happy New Year!

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  8. Gerrie,

    the more I look at your post, the more I like it! All these wonderful prints and paintings seem to be parts of a jigsaw puzzle that add up to an emblematic image of the landscape down here as it was 100 years ago.
    Ferdinand Mirwald is of particular interest to me(I must confess I didn't know him.). I definitely know that his woodcut of the snow-covered trees at the canal (the one without the houses) depicts the Schleissheimer Kanal, and Thiemann made a very similar woodblock of exactly the same spot. I wonder which print was made first...

    A truly enlightening post to me!

    Klaus

    P.S.: Are you sure the chestnut trees are by Thiemann?

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    1. Thanks again Klaus for the careful reading, you were absolutely right, the chestnut print was a mix-up, I replaced it by a more appropriate example of the Dachau moors. Nevertheless I'm very happy that I could make contribution worthwhile to a local expert like yourself.

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  9. I just stumbled upon your blog through a google search. There are some lovely prints on here, thank you!

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    1. Thank you, comments are scarce and always very much appreciated. There's more nice postings coming up soon. Gerrie

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  10. Wow....I have finally discovered the artist of a print hanging in my study to be C Theimann. His signature, in pencil, rests in the lower right corner. There appears some comments in the lower left corner as well. BUT, like his signature, I find hard to determine its meaning. Recieved the print from a relative whose military career would have her pass through Vienna, Italy....

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    1. It's always nice to've been of help. Send a picture of the print in an attachment if you like. You'll find the email is in the contact button.

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  11. Thank you so much for this information. I am quite emotional since reading this. Today I wrote down the name of the artist on pictures of my father's who past last spring. It was Carl Theimann and one is of gondalas in water at St Georgio and the other is flowers. When I knew my father had an artist paint them for him but today when I turned over the picture there was writing telling that my dad commisioned the work. If I understand correctly that would be orders yet the artist was still paid? My dad spoke some of the artist and yet I didn't realize that he could have been in Dachau were dad was during the liberation at age 19. This puts more perspective in the history for myself and family. Thank you, thank you!

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    1. You're welcome, please send pictures for sharing.

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