Herbert Bolivar Tschudy (Judy) in the old New York Aquarium

Herbert Bolivar Tschudy
(H.B. Judy)

(1874-1946)

American impressionist painter.

Inside the old New-York Aquarium with Emma Bormann in before posting I met Tschudy, the  painter who shared with me the fascination for tropical fishtanks.

Plan of New-York aquarium in Castle Clinton Manhattan

The acquaintance leading me back to Dutch painter Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof (1866-1924) whom I introduced in an early Linosaurus posting (here*) and who is remembered best for his great number of Amsterdam Artis Zoo fish tank paintings (below). 

Tschudy, without a doubt from Swiss ancestry, also used to sign Judy probably avoiding the very un-Anglo spelling of his family name. His parents will have been admirers of Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) the founding father and first president of several free and democratic South-American states like Panama, Venezuala and Peru giving his name to the state of Bolivia.

Fulton Street Ferry underneath one of the pillars of Brooklyn Bridge

in 1914 by H.B.Tschudy. 

Fulton Street Ferry went out of service in 1924 the year this photograph of Brooklyn, Manhattan and both connecting bridges (Brooklyn and Manhattan) was taken. Manhattan Bridge was completed in 1909. 

Lill Tschudi (1911-2004) the Grosvenor School and Claude Flight (1881-1955) trained Swiss printmaker will probably be related but that is beyond my knowledge and horizon. 

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

Emma Bormann in America

Emma Bormann

(1887-1974)

Austrian printmaker and painter
Professor in the Vienna Acedemy of Fine Arts.

After her long stay in China during the 1940's with her family Emma Bormann -Milch eventually returned to Germany and later Austria in 1952. She created several prints after sketches and drawings, of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington etc… One of the strangest and one of the nicest, I believe, is of the New York Aquarium in former Castle Clinton in Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, New-York. 

The aquarium was installed and opened in the old fort on the southern tip of Lower Manhattan after the immigrations-service was transferred to Ellis Island , just opposite, in 1892. 

Initially it was designed, build and completed in 1811 as an island fort but it never served as such nor has it ever seen any action. Shortly after it was finished it was leased to the city of New York and was soon attached to Manhattan by reclaiming and landfilling the surrounding area. Roofed, it was turned into a theater and from the 1840's it housed the immigrations office seeing millions of new Americans arriving in America until Ellis Island took over. 

In 1896 the New-York Aquarium opened in the former fort and theater in Battery Park and was a popular outing for decades. In 1957 the aquarium was moved to Coney Island and later the fort was restored into its original form. 

Emma Bormann had a special eye for the panorama and besides the great birds-eye view prints of great cities -from Shanghai to Chicago- she also shows it in the aquarium print. The curved lines, she in many situations looked for, greatly helping the perspective and composition. 

New-York

L: ?  R: Chicago, outer drive (dated 1936 ?)

Aquatic Park and Coit Tower in San Fransisco, prints probably created in the 1950's although the Chicago Outer-drive print is  dated 1936.

The dramatic and creative birds eye views with the curved interior were also used and applied in the prints (and paintings) she created from concert halls (the Vienna Opera House below) and the circus (Circus Krone). 

Another, not very often discussed feature is she liked to stage many people, crowds, in her prints and paintings. But that's for a next posting. Also my encounter with American painter Herbert Bolivar Tschudi (a name with a familiar Austrian/British printmaking ring) in the aquarium will have to wait: until next posting.  

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

Added jan. 8th after a comment by Scottish reader James:

"Queer fish" by Mabel Dwight (1876-1955), a 1936 lithograph reader James kindly pointed me to, created in the same year Emma Bormann visited the New York Aquarium. Much like Emma B. besides the aquarium she often choose, crowds, the circus and the theater for her prints. See all next posting on Herbert Bolivar Tschudy.                 

Jørgen Luplau Janssen

Jørgen Luplau-Janssen 

( 1869-1927)

Danish impressionist painter, professor and unexpected printmaker.

(with his first first wife Marie Borup)

Ebay keeps astonishing me because of the regular washing up of unknown prints and sometimes unknown printmakers. Like these two prints.      

Jørgen Luplau Janssen was educated at the Royal academy of arts in 1885 and joined Peder Krøyer (1851-1909) in his painting school in 1891 for further training. In 1909 he went to Paris to study at the Académie Ranon. He became a well respected painter of landscape and portrait of which is Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1831-1855) the most celebrated. 

I presume the print is showing a (Danish ?) soldier or guard watching dreadnoughts of the German navy Hoch-see fleet on the horizon. 

I have no doubt Luplau-Janssen's endeavors at woodblock printing will have been inspired by his fellow Danish colleague Emil (Hansen) Nolde (1867-1956) who, initially trained as a traditional wood-engraver (xylograph) and after having studied and worked in Kopenhagen, Munich, St. Gallen and Paris (Academie Julian) returned to Kopenhagen in 1901 living in winter in Berlin. He even met and married his wife Ada Vilstrup (1879-1948) in Kopenhagen in 1902. Changing his name from Hansen in Nolde on the occasion.  In 1927 the painter printmaker returned to stay in the region where he was born. It was the year Luplau-Janssen died. Noldes' house and gardens, just on the German side of the Danish border are now a museum, his birthplace (the hamlet of Nolde) just on the other side.  

5 Dampfer (steamers) by Nolde 

In 1905 Lupla-Janssen was appointed professor at the Royal Academy in Kopenhagen where he taught in arts and model. Besides he was a keen amateur astronomer. His son Carl Luplau Janssen (1889-1971) the Danish astronomer.  

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

Happy Christmas 2013

Marius van Dokkum (b.1957) is a Dutch painter and illustrator of still-life and  every day situations, often with a wink. Google him on a rainy day and enjoy.

Nüremberg, the hangman's house

Henkersteg 

Although postings asking for help in attempting to identify a printmaker often do not have the result one hopes for here's a fresh puzzle. Since even a certain collector in Bavaria (thank you Claus for trying) cannot read the signature nor has he any clues based upon style and/or technique used I decided once more asking the help of readers. 

Printed in 3 colors + the key block and the easy cutting and printing technique betraying this wasn't an amateur. On the other hand he was not a very prolific printmaker: I have nothing stored in my archive and database even resembling. In the Germany section. Without the signature in old German  handwriting ("Suetterlin Schrift") I would have guessed it was English school linocut printmaking. On the back of the sheet the 3 initials were scribbled.

Probably reading ?. "Schultz" B…h..mann.

Comparing with Carl Thiemann's version of the Hangmans house ("Henkershaus") in a folio edition of "10 views of Nüremberg"  the unknown printmaker winning the decorative argument not in the last place by using of color blocks.

Trying to find out (notice how I avoid using the word research, but nevertheless) there's no way escaping stumbling over the mother of all woodblock prints (or one of its sisters) from "Weltchronik" printed in 1493(!) Designed by Michael Wolgemut (1434-1519) and his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Alfred Dürer (1471-1528) the Godfather of printmaking himself, who was taught by Wolgemut and probably attributed in that edition.

Realising this View in Nüremberg is a lithographic and not a woodblock print by Fritz Beckert (1877-1928) I simply had it to include in this Nüremberg posting of course (courtesy of Annex Galleries USA)

  

Suddenly realising a source of inspiration for Emma Bormann (1887-1974) who (above view of Salzburg) according to her daughters account, always looked for the highest viewpoint first, before climbing and designing her prints. But now I'm wandering of. She depicted many great German and foreign cities in a panoramic way but never Nüremberg.  

Please help me to identify the Henkershaus printmaker.        

MR: more Mathilde Reuss in Erfurt ?

There're 100 years between this print of Erfurts St. Mariën Cathedral ("Domkirche") and the spires of Saint Severins church and the photographs. Building started 1200 years ago in the year 752 in honor of Bonifatius. Who wasn't a Saint yet  and who was to be murdered in Dokkum just two years later and not far from where I live today. Building of Saint Severins chapel and church started in the 13th century. 

The chestnut trees from the 1920's have been replaced by new specimens. And probably the sketching artist probably sat while the photographer stood explaining the slight difference in perspective. Incredible and amazing, how this comparison, with a century (!) in between pictures, can be made from the arm chair. From another country. From another time.   

Since my recent discovery, Mathilde Reuss in the before posting, I cannot help thinking this print lingering in Ebay for some time and monogrammed MR (lower left) is, or might be, another example by the printmaker royal. Other intelligent suggestions are of course welcomed. 

MR

is also the monogram used by Suisse painter and printmaker Marie Rollé (1865-1942), who I only know by this one print

My personal explanation the Princess/Countess was maybe less artistically gifted but had trained hard making up and becoming quite skillful. (Maybe) taking famous artists of her days as an example. Like Norbertine Bresslern Roth in her Marabus print. Mathildes monogram in that print resembling St. Severins spires is purely a coincidence of course. The hint of buildings on the horizon on the left just above the tree line making the difference between a snapshot and a well considered composition.   

If I had to do a blind test (no signature, no monogram, no clue) I would have guessed the Erfurt print could have been made by Helene Mass (b.1871). Because of the chestnuts and maybe created on a less inspiring day.  

Erfurts Cathedral complex in the times of Mathilde (1863-1933). 

The cathedral and church complex of Erfurt once the seat of the Saxon Empire was only mildly damaged in WWII in contrast to the destroyed marvels of Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Stuttgart and so many other historic cities (Coventry, London, Breslau, Groningen, Rotterdam………..)