Emma Meyer (Mayer), Danish printmaker

Emma Meyer (Mayer)

(Emilie Leonore Meyer)

1859-1921

Danish landscape painter, arts and crafts artist, teacher

etcher and woodblock printmaker.

It has taken me some time to discover the identity of Emma Mayer. One reason is because there are no records of her as a printmaker in the www. No pictures, no auction sales, nothing but a handful of her paintings. Well actually, there was one, shown in this Blog even, but it was not attributed to her because the signature wasn't recognized. The colours of the Danish flag (var. "Union Jack", or "Danish Star") and the name of one of the earliest cultivated Dahlia varieties could have been a clever clue leading to Denmark. Some say 1882 others claim 1911. Emma had picked a bunch somewhere and saw their decorative potential in a print. 

It’s great to find territory that has not been trodden on before, revealing an obscured and unexpected printmaker is sometimes the reward.

A second reason of not being able to identify her earlier is the coincidence  there’s another contemporary artist-painter, by the same name. Both women have been mixed up before I’ve noticed, even in official writings. The other Emmy Meyer was born 1866 in Frankfurt, joined the Worpswede Artist Colony, was a friend of Otto Ubbelohde and died in Worpswede in 1938. This Emmy was taught and educated artistically in Berlins Zeichen und Mahlschule in the mid 1890’s. The school that for many years was run by Else Schmiedeberg. 

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But my Emma (Emilie Leonore) Meyer was born in Flensburg as third child   of Fritz Meyer (1817-1891) a judge in Denmarks Supreme Court and Maria Frederikke Dalberg (1832-1917).

Three more children were born, the last one was Jennie Sophie, in 1866. She was to become a famous porcelain decorator and painter with the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory and exhibited worldwide.

Emma studied in Denmark with landscape painter Harald Foss (1842-1922) and with Denmarks most important impressionist painter Peder Krøyer (1851-1909) (see before posting) .

Emilie Mundts painting is on the wall in the couples studio next to the portrait of Emilie  Mundts father, a Danish mathematician and politician. 

Emma also followed trainings with painters Emilie Mundt (1843-1922) and Marie Luplau (1848-1925) (above) who were leading a painting school for women within the Danish Academy of Fine Arts. The history of these two women, lovers, great painters and feminists “avant la lettre” and their painting school is well worth reading and perhaps will follow in a next posting. Emma is buried in the same cemetery in Frederiksberg as her father and the two women teachers, and to this day very much loved and appreciated Danish painters.

Here are the pictures of a bundle of woodblock prints that I’ve found recently. Now Emma is finally on the map of Printmakers and Printmaking maybe more examples of her graphic work will show up.

She exhibited in the Royal Charlottenborg Castle from 1885-1922 and won prestigious awards like the Acadamy Award in 1895-96 and the Sødring Price for landscape painting in 1901.

In October 1908 I found her name among the exhibitors in Hamburg showing works from the collections of the Kopenhagen Kunstnerforeningen along with etchings by the the combined contemporary German Masters: Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, Siegfried Berndt, Emil Nolde, Käthe Kollwitz, Carl Moll, Walter Leistikow and many if not all of the other great names of the period.

Dinkelsbühl

Emma reworked some blocks for her Hamburg Alster print and experimented with slightly different colours. Both prints were in the bundle.

She was in Hamburg again in 1913, along with painter and printmaker Friedrich Lissmann (1880-1815) who’s great prints and sad life story I’ve unveiled in the Linosaurus here* and Gretchen Wohlwill (1878-1962) member of the Hamburg Seccesion with an equally sad biography being Jewish. She had recently returned from Paris studying with Matisse in his Academy (1908-1911)

And I found a clue Emma had been teaching in Hamburgs Arts and Crafts (Kunst und Gewerbe) school. Which has a great museum btw. 100 meters from the main Bahnhof, were concerts are given on authentic instruments and  housing great collections that will take more then one day to visit.

All pictures borowed from the Internet for friendly and educational use only.

Emma Meyer (Mayer) 1888 Nordic Exhibition

In 1888 the Nordic Exhibition in Copenhagen was held to promote the Industrial, Agricultural and Artistic products of Scandinavia. Worries for Denmarks economic progress lay on the basis for organising this promotional “Expo of the North”, an effort drawing attention, visitors and capital to the capital. 

In the wake of this Nordic Exhibition Heinrich Hirschsprung (1836-1908) a self made tobacco millionaire and art maecenas, collector and personal friend of most contemporary Danish painters had the smart idea of organizing a parallel Art Exhibition to show, in the Charlottenborgh Castle, his important Danish art collection. 

The Charlottenborgh Castle is since earliest days the home of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Every year exhibitions were and still are held in spring and a successful career as an artist began and begins here. In 1883 a new exhibition hall was added and build for the purpose.

After Hirschsprung’s death his extensive collections of Danish Art were to become part of the already important and famous Danish National Collection of International Art started in the 18^th century and to accommodate it a new building was build near the National Gallery. 

I remember a perticular discussion in the Blog concerning the alleged use of photography in the etchings of Anders Zorn (1860-1920). In 1990 the opening of files in the Hirschsprung collection revealing a century(!) later the great Peder Krøyer (1851-1909) used photography in Denmarks most famous iconic and treasured paintings after buying his first camera in 1885. Krøyer painted his friends family in 1881 (above), probably without photographic aid, although the scene looks very much staged, everybody in it trying to behave extremely casual. 

In the 1885 Charlottenborgh exhibition among the many works of art and artists exhibiting was a young, still landscape painting, Edward Munch (1863-1944) and sisters Emma Leonora and Jenny Sofie Meyer. It was the year the idea for the Nordic Exhibition to be held in 1888 first arose in which the sisters were also present. Jenny Meyer was and still is famous for her applied art of painting for the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory. I'll tell more about them in next posting.  

Emma painted her sister Jenny at work at the Royal Kopenhagen Porecelain Company. Following the scarce facts on the www she is considered an important Danish women painter and belonging to a group named “the Pioneers”. More details on such a group I was not able to find.  But more about Emma and Jenny in next posting.

Sonderaften pa Skagens Sonderstrand, 1893 by Peder Krøyer

Read here* more about the use of photography in Krøyers paintings after 1885. 

The pictures in this posting show our ancestors didn’t go about these things half hearted. The efforts and expenses to organize big events like this, open for just a few months, in a world without flying machines, automobiles, telephone or radio must have been enormous. For the occasion even Tivoli was rented, locations cleared, new buildings designed, build, rebuild or destroyed afterwards. On the cleared exhibition grounds soon after Copenhagen's new Town Hall (Rådhus) and Square (Rådhuspladsen) was build.

Also held in Europe in or around 1888:

The Glasgow Exhibition on Science, Art and Industry: 5,7 million visitors

The Great Exhibition of Old Masters held in 1888 in the Royal Academy in London.

The London American Exhibition (1887) during Queen Victoria’s golden Jubilee (with the Buffalo Bill show): 2,5 million tickets sold.

And a year later in 1889 the World Expo in Paris, with the infant Eiffel tower, was held drawing over 6 million visitors. 

Next: Emma Meyer (1859-1921) Danish painter and unexpected woodblock printmaker.

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

Hamburg, Alstervergnügen !

For this week I’ve planned a trip to wonderful Hamburg. A walk along the  Alster enjoying the skyline of one of Europe’s great cities. Where many a great city has a Central Park, Hamburg has a central lake. I mean besides the impressive and bustling river Elbe seaport front, also the subject of many great works of art. Enough for a next posting, but saved for later. 

The Alster, more or less a lake or dead branch from an Elbe river contributory, is divided into an inner and outer Alster, situated in and outside the now disappeared medieval city walls to be more exact. It is divided by the old and new Lombard-brücke renamed J.F.Kennedy Bridge after JFK's historic visit to Berlin in 1963 and constructed along the old bridge in 1953 and obviously not visible in the pictures shown here. 

Hamburg sky-line around 1860, 1880, 1900. All pictures are mouse clickable.

Hans Kaumann (1863-1946)

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There’s a reason of course: this woodblock print above, created around 1908 by a printmaker who’s name is not to be found in the www. At least not relating to printmaking. I’ll reveal her(……) identity in next posting along with half a dozen other very obscured and never before witnessed prints turning up recently in neighbouring Netherlands and now safely under my guard and protection.  

Lovis Corinth (1858-1925): Kaisertag (Emperors day). Corinth happened to be in Hamburg in the very hot summer of 1911 and painted the festivities around the Inner Alster in honour of Kaiser Wilhelm II visit to nearby Altona. 

Hamburg's silhouette with the many church towers seen from the Außeralster is as iconic, unmistakable and recognizable as those of Prag, London, New York or Paris. 

Erich Mercker (1891-1973)

Carl Bössenroth (1863-1935)

So enjoy in this posting one of the most charming locations in Europe as seen by some famous and by some lesser known artists who were here before us, let's say turn of, beginning of the 20th the century. The glorious skyline of Hamburg seen as it was before the great and repeated destructions in WW2.

Paul Paeschke (1875-1943), the painter-etcher who's works are characterized by the many human figures and crowds, he staffaged his works with. Look for the Alster ferry boat in several other works shown.

Otto Schulz-Stradtmann (1892-1960), lived his life in Hamburg and was famous for his many atmospheric Hamburg city and harbour paintings.  

Arthur Illies (1870-1952), swans in the Alster 1908

Thomas Ludwig Herbst (1848-1915) painted the Alster ferry and the "Landungsbrucke" but was most loved and remembered as Germany's sublime painter of sublime cow portraits (later !) 

The Inner Alster: French post-Impressionist Eduard Veuillard (1868-1940) visited and Danish Tuxen Laurits Regner (1853-1927)

Luigi Kasimir (1881-1962)  from Italy was here

Walter Geffcken (1872-1950) Sailing boats on the Outer-Alster

Albert Feser (1901-1993) like Otto Schulz-Stradtmann a son of Hamburg: impressionist view on the Alster Rowingclub clubhouse. 

There are, of course, many more examples, this posting just a, my, selection, but in next posting more about the forgotten and obscured printmaker.

Anna Gerresheim (1852-1921),  somewhat obscured artist from the Ahrenshoop Künstlerkolonie, but what a lovely drawing and etching this is of the ferry in the Inneralster. 

Having been targeted and abused recently by some serious spamming criminals I've had some serious thoughts about discontinuing the Blog. Is there not a law against this kind of piracy and violation ? If any recent and serious comments are missed, please try again. Last days, very annoyed, I’ve removed and deleted a truckload of spam from my mailbox. Is there someone one who knows how to keep this shite outdoors ?

So far my frustrations.  Thank you. You’ve been very helpful listening.

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