Travemünde Harbor and Old Lighthouse
Resuming more regular posting in this Blog after a period of retreat and contemplation I'ld like to share this recent find. A rather nice woodblock print showing a resting to a mooring pole sailing vessel ("Ostee-kutter", Baltic cutter ?) in a harbor with a rather characteristic lighthouse. Googling I could find three lighthouses more or less of this type: Terschelling (Netherlands), Borkum and Travemünde (below).
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A printmaker signing, E. Schott, Scholl, Schoff (?) is not represented in my archives. The ship resembles prints of traditional Baltic sailing ships by Daniël Staschus (1872-1953) a printmaker, with his wife Paula associated with the Nidden artist colony near Königsberg some 500 km. to the east. 
The harbor and lighthouse obviously show Travemünde ("mouth of river Trave") gateway to the old and important city of Lübeck some 17 km. upriver to the West, and the Baltic sea. The old Lighthouse close to the shore and the magnificent tree behind, the buildings and even the mooring poles matching perfectly.
MS Queen Mary II visiting Travemünde.
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Travemünde and it's harbor have been the love and inspiration of painter Ulrich Hübner (1872-1932), the Berlin secessionist who also lived in the village and whom I've met before in postings on artist Fanny Remak (here*).
Hübner probably painted every mile of this very picturesque place, the lighthouse which of course cannot be missed in every almost any view. He created numerous paintings of this part of the estuary, the harbour entrance with it's freighters, fishermen, travellers, ferries, piers and baltic fleet of traders and sailing boats.
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Researching this print I stumbled over one Otto Schoff (1884-1938) an Emil Orlik student in Berlin, a graphic artist who is mainly known and remembered for his (homo)erotic drawings and etchings. Some are really nice and some very "explicit".
Otto Schoff also seemed to have been involved in the world of sailing and sailors. Although he studied with Emil Orlik (he could have been studying other graphic techniques besides woodblock printmaking) I could find no records or examples of any activity engaged with woodblock printmaking. He was born in Bremen and studied in the "Kunst und Gewerbeschule" (Arts and Craft School) in Bremen, then Berlin and Paris (with George Grosz, who also had been as student of Orlik and who was also very much in drawing "specific human behavior" like Schoff).
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If readers have any idea about the identity of the Travemünde printmaker, Scholl, Schott or Schoff, please let me know.
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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.
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