Fanny Remak, Part III, her friends: Julie Wolfthorn

Julie Wolfthorn
(born Julie Wolf(f)

(Thorn 1864 - murdered 1944 Theresiënstadt Ghetto)

German painter, celebrated portrait and grafic artist. 

Friend and colleague of Fanny Remak.
(Please help me by sending more/new information) 

Trying to unveil the obscured life and career of Fanny Remak (Thorn 1883-1970 London) today I take a look at the life and career of her friend Julie Wolfthorn. Both women worked closely together for some years in the board of the “Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen” until 1933 the Nazis made their work and eventually their life impossible.

Fanny had been a member of the VdBK since 1913, her friend Käthe Munzer (see Fanny Remak: Part II) since 1904 and Julie Wolfthorn since 1898. Fanny was elected chairwoman in 1928 and Julie joined her in the board in 1931 and they were in function until 1933. Both women sharing a Jewish and Polish (Preussian) background. Their families originating from roughly the same region although the Remaks had settled in Berlin a generation or two earlier. 

In 1933 the Jewish artists and board members were replaced by “Arien” colleagues Elisabeth von Oertzen, Helene Mass and L.E.Margarethe Gerhardt, all former board members and all three happened to be, besides painters, “Farbholzschnitt” or colour woodblock printmakers. All three appeared earlier in this Blog (follow the labels below).  

Julie Wolfthorn has recently been the artist of research by Dr. Heike Carstensen who researched, reconstructed and published Julie's biography so I'ld better not go into any detail in this humble and unscolarly posting.

In the beginning of her career as an artist Julie designed several covers for the influential and innovative Magazine "Jugend" becoming later one of the first really successful woman artist-painters in the beginning of the 20^th century Germany.

She would paint the portraits of Berlins “beau-monde”, intellectuals, doctors, feminists, writers, artists etc..  and lived for over 30 years with her sister Luise, a translator, in their house and studio in the  Kurfürstenstrasse 50, near Berlin Zoo, a continuation of the famous Kurfürstendamm and not far from Café Splendid on nr. 75 (above). She was acquainted, worked and exhibited with all great artists of her time: Lovis Corinth, Max Liebermann, Franz von Stuck, Hans Hayek etc… (left, Julie in 1908) 

Kurfürstendamm 

In 1896 she was introduced to Ida and poet Richard Dehmel by her friend, poet and translator Hedwig Lachmann (1865-1918) in 1896 and was commissioned to paint the couple exhibiting the result in the "Grossen Berliner Kunstaustelling" the next year marking the beginning of her career as Germany’s foremost portrait painter. 

Hedwich Lachmann and Ida Dehmel

Ida Dehmel was the founder of the German and Austrian Women Artists Association (GEDOK). Avoiding the inevitable faith of all Jews in Nazi Germany she took her own life in 1942.   

Although once celebrated and famous, not even actively of the Jewish faith, harmless and now elderly in 1944 she was deported from her Berlin (above "Berl;inner Strasse") with her sister and transported to Theresiënstad “model”-Ghetto and perished under abominable and most inhuman conditions but never losing her dignity.  

Coming from middle class Jewish background a good or fine education for girls was quite normal and considered an obligation even. The German language needs only one (composite) word to describe it's philosophic and enlightened meaning: "Bürger-Bildingspflicht":  the obligation for any citizen or human being to educate one self and make the best out of your abilities and precious life. 

Under the wings of her grandmother Johanna Neumann-Kuehlbrandt (1816-1899) who was a writer, feminist and a poet) and had moved to Berlin maybe also to finish the education of her orphaned grandchildren and living in the Nettelbeckstrasse 7/II Julie as youngest of 5 children (like her friend Fanny Remak) was encouraged and enabled to study with the best private teachers and in the best private painting schools in Germany and abroad.

Adolph Eduard Herstein

This address later was owned by Henriette (Bock-) Neumann (see below) one of Johanna's other granddaughters returning from Poland because of better schools for her children in Berlin. Next door in the building was also the house and studio of Adolph Eduard Herstein (1869-1932) a German-Polish painter, graphic artist, teacher, and Secessionist who had an affair (and a son) with countess Fanny zu Reventlow (interesting reading here*).  

Studying in Paris Julie was accompanied by her niece Olga Fayans (1869-1954), one of Germany’s first female physicians. 

And possibly she was also accompanied in Paris by another niece, Henrietta Neumann (later married lawyer Leon Bock), who was enabled to study with Pauline Viardot-García (1821-1910) at that time probably the most famous opera singer in the world (above). Several of her nieces became opera singers, doctors, writers and artists or married one. Many also not surviving the Holocaust. Several nephews immigrated making careers in the USA.

In Paris, in the Académie Colarossi, (above) around 1890 Julie could have met Anna Klumpke (1856-1942) the American (portrait) painter and later companion of Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) the world’s 19^th century’s most successful female painter, friend of George Sand the muze of Frédéric Chopin.  (Read here*  more about the astonishing Klumpke sisters).

Anna Gerresheim (1852-1921) is mostly remembered by her Ahrenshoop artist colony background but very successful as a free creating (portrait) painter somewhat before Julie started her own career. She is probably one of the first, maybe even the first artist in Germany to have tried at color woodblock printmaking but that will have to wait to a next posting. She had been an early member of the VdBK (1884-98) exhibiting in the “Großer Berliner Kunstaustellung” from 1881. All these liberated women will have been a role model for many younger German woman artists.

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Some of Julie's close relatives:

Johanna Neumann-Kuehlbrandt (1816-1899), was her grand-mother, poet, writer and active in  women's liberation circles.

Georg Wolf (1858-1930) above, a sculptor, was her brother. Said to have created a sculpture of two of his nieces (Marianne and Leonora, Olga Hempels daughters) in Tiergarten Berlin: but where is it ?

Luise Wolf (1860-1944 murdered Theresiënstadt), translator, was her sister.

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Henrietta Bock-Neumann (1865-1942 murdered Theresiënstadt), opera singer and translater, was her niece. 

Meta Neumann (1859-1943 murdered Theresiënstadt) well known singer, was her niece.

Dr. Olga Hempel-Fajans (1869-1954), one of Germany’s first doctors, was her niece.

Mina Arndt (1885-1926) important New-Zealand painter, was her niece (their grandmothers were sisters). She studied in England, Wales and Berlin (with Franz von Stuck and Max Liebermann) and visited, of course, her niece Julie while in Berlin (between 1907-1914). 

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

Fanny Remak, Part I: Who was she ?

How can one even try to describe or write about an artist not knowing a single work of art she's ever produced ? In my research concerning the first generation of German women printmakers busy with color woodblock printmaking there're a few artist I just happen to know by one or two works. Fanny, however, is a mystery, a complete blank. So, in my ongoing research, here's all I have on her: my first posting without any examples to share. But it's all I have and was able to find about her life and family. Please help me to do her honor and give her the place in printmaking history she deserves. The biography I composed is followed by the genealogy I tried  to reconstruct with data harvested from the Internet: Blessed is the Internet for friendly purposes. Her life and world destroyed, her brother murdered and what was left of her family emigrated and found shelter  in a neighboring friendly country. 

As often before learning about artistic woman born in the 19th century she was of bourgeois, intellectual (industrial, influential, rich, medical and/or self-made) background. 

Remak, Fanny

(Berlin 1883 – 1970 London)

Painter, graphic artist (landscape, portrait and city views), teacher at Cambridge University. The second daughter of Jewish neurologist prof. Ernst Julius Remak (1849-1911) and Martha Hahn. Granddaughter of embryologist and first Jewish professor ever in Prussia Robert Remak (1815-1865). She was named after her great-grandmother Fanny (Franzeska) Wallach who probably was still alive in 1883 or had recently died). Studied in the “Zeichen und Malschule“ of the VdBK in Berlin with Ulrich Hübner (1872-1932) (below)

and 1912-1913in the studio of flower painter George Mosson (1851-1933) also in Berlin (below)

Then continued her studies in the “Académie Moderne” in Paris with Charles Guerin (1875-1939) (below)

and with Maurice Denis (1870-1943) (below),

one of the "Nabis" or "Wild Ones" and also in the “Academie Paul Ranson (1862-1909) in existence 1908-1944. In 1914 she is living as a student in the “Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule” in Munich.  

Member of the “Freien Sucession” 1921 in Berlin. Permitted to teach painting and drawing in 1931. Board member of the “Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen” (VdBK) 1930-33. In 1933 she was banned from working as a Jewish artist (“Berufsverbot”). Emigrated to England (London) in 1939. Her sisters Feodore’s family already escaped in 1935. On her leave all she possessed was seized in Hamburg harbour and auctioned. She taught painting and drawing 1944-1950 in Cambridge. She was a close friend of Käte Munzer-Neumann (1877-1959) also a Jewish artist and likewise forgotten (below). 

Her brother Robert Remak (1888-1942) an awarded and famous German mathematician decided against odds to stay, defy the Nazi's and try to safe the family fortune and status. He was seized and murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1942. 

Fanny exhibited in the “Grosse Berliner Kunstaustellung”, in the VdBK 1927-30, and in the “Freie Secession” and was a member of the VdBK 1913-1934. Boardmember 1927-1933 (with other printmakers like Elisabeth von Oertzen, Julie Wolfthorn, Hélène Mass, L.E.M. Gerhardt, Auguste Lind-Graf, Marie Isenbart, Elisabeth Consentius and Augusta von Zitsewitz). She was chairwoman of the VdBK 1928-1933.

GENEALOGY 

1a) Fanny Remak 

her brother and sister

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1b      Remak, Dr. Robert (Berlin 14-02-1888 – 13-11-1942 Auschwitz), a mathematician.

1c     Remak, Feodore (Berlin 1881-1967 London) x Dr. Siegfried Litthauer (1869-1935 Berlin) their children: Litthauer, Ernst Karl, (Berlin 17-06-1916-1997 Warwickshire) partner of Erna Low (British travel business)

 and  Litthauer, Prof. Dr. Hildegard Theresa  (Berlin 20-02-1918 – 15-03-1989 London) married 1940 Dr. Fred Himmelweit (d.1977 a virologist and director of virus research in St. Mary’s hospital in London.

           She was send to study in England escaping the Nazi’s in 1934. They had a daughter Susuan 

1d) Remak, Georg (Berlin 1890-1979 Munich) who was a Prussian and German gouvernement official and high court judge. 

Fanny's parents

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2     Remak,  Prof. Dr. Ernst Julius (Berlin 26-05-1849 – 24-05-1911 Wiesbaden), prof. (1893)  neurology in Berlin, married: 

3      Hahn, Martha (Berlin 1857-1932 Berlin)

Her grand-parents
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4   Remak, Prof. Dr. Robert  (26-07-1815 – 29-08-1865) Polish/Prussian embryologist, neurologist (1828-1863), first Jewish Prussian professor, married 08-07-1848

5       Meyer, Feodore (1828-1863), their children:

                       - Ernst Julius (follows)

                       - (+ another son)

6       Hahn, Albert (Breslau 18-12-1824 – 10-02-1898 Berlin), selfmade industrialist building an  international imperium of pipe manufacturing and artificial wool (with Russia) married Berlin 1854

7       Rosenthal, Therese (1831-1912) their children (4 sons and 3 daughters):

- Oskar, (1860-1907), lawyer, industrialist in the firm of his father married Charlotte Landau, (1865-1934)

- Martin, (1865-1934) Prof. Hygiene, Microbiologist.

- Georg, (1864-1953) dir. Hänschen Werke. 
- Gertrud (1866-1954), married Kurt Hensel (1861-1941) Prof. mathematics

- Johannes (Hans)
- Fanny

          - Martha (follows)

her great-grand-parents

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  8       Remak, Salomon Meyer, merchant in Posen (Poznan) Poland, married 

  9       Caro, Frederieke 

             Their children: Robert (1815-1865) follows, Gustavus (d.1886), Stefan (d.1889), Stanislas (d.1910), Henriete (married Adolf Loewenfeld)

10    Meyer, Eli Joachim (1783-1849),  merchant from Körlin (Coerlin), privat Berlin banker), married 

11       Abraham, Betty (Driessen 1888 – 1839 Berlin)

                    Their children: Abraham 1810-1881, Friedrich 1820-1881, Rosalie, Feodore (1828-1863) follows.

12      Elcan, Meyer (Martin) (1785-1854) Goldsmith in Neisse/Paris and Barmen, later merchant in Kassel and Breslau, married 

13      Hünern, Johanna (1792-1829)

14      Rosenthal, Isaac Samuel (1800-1860) cotton manufactor/merchant, married 

15      Wallach, Fanny 

great-great Grand-parents

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20       Meyer, Joachim

24       Elcanan, Marcus (1755-1808) leather merchant and freight-trader in Glogau married:

25       Abraham, Gittel

26       Hünern, Hirsch genannt Jungmann  married:

27       Gotheiner, Reche

30       Wallach, David Moses (Dietrich Moritz) merchant in Berlin

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

Else Zinkeisen revisited: more Elbe fishing boats

Zinkeisen, Else

(Hamburg 27-08-1871 - ?)

Hamburg painter and printmaker. 

Harbored Elbe fishing boats drying sails. 

Belonging to the group of pioneer German women printmakers Else is almost at the end of my alphabetical research list: only Olga von Zitsewitz and Bertha Züricher to follow last. She came to mind when reader Tom (see before posting) has send me another print probably losing its makers signature, for sharing. An educated guess (the use of color, the way the horizon is done and the rather simply cut outlines of the vessels) would be Else Zinkeisen (After "eliminating" possibles:  Carl Thiemann, and Josephine Siccard Redl (both traveled and printed Venice lagune ships in evening settings) and Margarete (L.E.M.) Gearhardt but she was active in the Nidden Art colony in the Baltic).  

She is printmaker about whom I know so very little (*). I've shown her before in the Blog and I am confident eventually more about her identity and biography will be revealed and cleared up. With the help of readers. She clearly had a fascination for these Elbe ships so for that reason they are shown here together again. Seen from some height, looking down, suggests in some views she sat near the village of Blankenese (maybe lived there?). That lovely and picturesque spot adjacent to the bustling city and harbour of Hamburg I plan showing, artistically, in next posting.    

What I do know: 

Else was a member of the “Heikendorfer Künstler Kolonie” that sprang up around the house and studios of Heinrich Blunk (1898-1963) at the Kieler Forde, not far from Hamburg. Printmaker Oscar Droege (1898-1983) was a member (later becoming professor in Kassel) and painter Georg Burmeister (1864-1936). She followed private painting lessons in Hamburg and in Berlin with professor Franz Skarbina (1849-1910), in Munich with Angelo Jank (1868-1940). She studied also at prestigious Academie Colarossi in Paris and was professionally active in Hamburg around the 1920's. An expensive artistic  education and training for a girl in those days an indication for a (very) well to do background. 

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Some random biographical notes concerning artistic Zinkeisen families: 

(*) Else  could be related to Dr. Eduard Zinkeisen a pharmacists who in 1849 founded a successful and in Paris awarded mineral water company in Hamburg. Probably succeeded in the company by a namesake (his son?) Eduard Zinkeisen into the XXth century.  

(*) Gabrielle Zinkeisen (b. Dresden 1879), a painter and color woodblock printmaker (I've never seen an example) who also happened to study with Franz Skarbina in Berlin according to Thieme Becker Lexikon. She had a painting sister Gertrud (b. 1877). 

(*) Anna (b.1901) and Doris (b.1898) Zinkeisen, British/Scottish sisters, painters and stage designers. Their father Victor Z. a timber merchant originated from a Bohemian family that settled in Scotland in the 18th century. 

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