Clara Telge (part II): Hamburg & friends

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.   

Ernst Odefey II: some more ferries and steam along the Elbe and in Hamburg Harbor

Following in the footsteps of Ernst Odefey (from before posting) visiting Hamburg harbor in the days of steam as promised today some nice works related to the HADAG harbor ferry in his print. Following my stream of consciousness and curiosity I took the ferry to debark some kilometers downstream and meeting another interesting artist. 

Most connected and related to atmosphere of steam, river Elbe and Hamburg are of course the expressionist paintings by Emil Nolde (1867-1956). He was born in the nearby borderlands of Schleswick and Denmark. The border between Germany and Denmark shifting regularly. 

But many other artists were attracted to the bustling and "romantic" scenery of Hamburg harbor. Paul Kutscha (1872-1935) an impressionist painter trained in Munich and Paris, travelled to Australia for 4 years and, returned, stayed in Hamburg 1905-1910 painting the harbor often. He was intrigued by the tugboats and ferries. 

And Paul Paeschke (1875-1943), probably my favorite German etcher, visited and depicted in his etchings so many German cities. In Hamburg harbor (he was in the Alster area too) he also saw the steam ferries and tugboats. Here he stuffed his stage with ships instead of the crowds he usually depicts in the streets, squares, beaches and markets in his city views.  

But it was this painting (below) that lead me to the possible destination of the ferry and, after a short stay and visit, back to a very interesting address in the heart of Hamburg, leading ultimately back to printmaking. 

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