Helene Mass (Maß), printmaker (IV)

Between 1875 and 1900 Berlin’s population (like those of London and Paris) roughly doubled. From 1 to 2 million (today 3,5 million). Around 1880 the Königliche Kunst und Gewerbe Schule was established after British Arts and Craft schools) and soon after a dozen more followed in most of Germany’s cities. In this Institution between 1890-1893 Walter Leistikow taught and  among them was Hélène Maß.   

Most of the world’ s todays great cities developed were great rivers meet the sea. There are exceptions: Paris, great river no sea. Berlin has neither sea nor Great River and rivers Spree and Havel, confluences of river Elbe are hardly navigable but creating a lovely lake district nearby. 

It was here, on the borders of the Wannsee in 1910 Max Liebermann, Germany’s great impressionist painter build his Villa Liebermann and retreated from the world, like Monet in Givenchy, to paint his garden and immediate surroundings.

Max Liebermann, one of the many paintings with chestnut and garden bench. 

Lower: Hélène Maß, (right: courtesy private collection of  Felicity Naylor)

Among the earliest German attempts on modern printmaking was Norwegian Edvard Munch (1863-1944) who was active in Berlin even before Orlik arrived. 

And in Munich Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and his muse Gabriëlle Münter (1877-1962) were “at it” in the first years of the XXth century. But these artists making their later name and fame not by their printmaking but by painting. And their unusual love affair of course.   

Berlin in those years will have been riddled with Art Galleries, Art Shops, Workshops, Studio's and exhibitions held everywhere every day of the 52 weeks of the year. Around 1890-1910 Berlins cultural and artistic influences and popularity, it's many academies, schools, tutors and established artist matching London, Paris and Prag.

"Spree-schlepper" (Spree tugboat) and "bei den Spreefischern" Berlin 1906 prints by Thiemann and Klemm auction catalogue thumbnails. My WBR (web based research, with its limitations and restrictions) so far failed to locate them in color and reasonable resolution. Readers are invited to help discovering them.

In 1906 Walter Klemm and Carl Thiemann visited their colleague and teacher Orlik in Berlin. In 1907 they participated in an exhibition in Hamburg and several works of both men were discussed (reviewd and appraised) later in 1908 in "Zeitschrift für Verfielfaltigende Kunst". Several Hamburg and Prague views and these two River Spree Berlin prints were discussed. And also Thiemann’s swann and Klemm’s turkeys.

Also mentioned and much appraised was the colorful and "Japanese in execution" pine-print by Thiemann, probably the horizontal print below. The pines founnd around the lake Grünewald (Grünewaldsee), a popular and beautiful location forever linked to the many paintings by Mass' painting teacher Walter Leistikow. 

(Shiro Kasamatsu: "Kinokunisaka in Rainy Season")

See also this very fresh posting on Emil Orlik.

All pictures borrowed (reblogged) freely from the internet for friendly, educational non commmercial use.

(to be continued)

Bror Julius Olssen Nordfeldt: continued

Some thoughts about Whiteline printmaking 

Today as promised in my before posting here are examples of Nordtfeldts’ Whiteline method printmaking. That is: the few I could find. If these prove to be all his output they are outnumbered 3:1 by his traditional Japanese style prints. 10 years after his initial printmaking he seems to have shifted his attention to  summer residence Provincetown. The local people and village views, with the emphasis on dresses and patterns, probably influenced by the ideas and trials of his female printmaking friends. To wich extend the temporarliy returned from France couple Ethel Mars and Maud Squire were influenced by possibly the earliest of creative printmaking endeavours by Wasili Kandinsky (1866-1944), who Mars called  the "grand-father of the group of Provincetown printmakers, Nordfeldt no doubt being the father and Blanche Lazell the daugter), and Edvard Munch (1863-1944) who experimented with partial and jig-saw printmaking as early as  in the late 1890's is beyond my capabillities of judgement.   

Upper: Wasili Kandinsky 1903, Lower Edvard Munch 1899 

I dare not jump to any conclusions but maybe Nordfeldt wasn’t so convinced by the results after all. His style changed dramatically and he is very far from the original and pioneering Fletcher and Dow adept and artist he was in and around 1906 (when Mars and Squire were still in Paris). His printmaking activities seem to have stopped after 1916 altogether. 

The new possibilities using the Whiteline method (more, and more easy coloring) smothered the artistic creativity required by the difficulties and limitations in traditional Japanese printmaking. The effect, I think, often reduced to “painting by numbers”. Moreover the general use of separating colors makes it very difficult if impossible to make distinctions between the works of different artists other then their compositional originality and choice of location and subject.

The unanimous choice of using the same harmonic Japanese color combinations isn’t a big help in distinguishing them either. Besides a pivotal figure in the invention and early development, Nordfeldt seems to have been the only male printmaker that has ever given it a try before WW2. The method and its popularity in America never crossed any ocean either to the East or  to the West.

There are exceptions of course. Edna Boies Hopkins (1872-1937) and Ethel Mars (1876-1956) succeeded best by exploring and combining the best of two worlds of printmaking avoiding with success the before mentioned effect. But only because they were among the most accomplished traditional printmaking artists of their time years before. 

Left: Ethel Mars and Maud Squire by Edna Hopkins. Right: Woman with sunflowers by Ethel Mars.

Tea: Ethel Mars and Maud Squire by Maud Squire

With Nordfeldt these two ladies were the real creative geniuses (geniae?) of that perticular group of early printmakers that tried combining the Japanese traditional with Old-world pioneers and new-World ideas.

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