Kornelie Gerland: au Chateau de Pourtalès ?

Amazingly this obvious companion print of the Castle-Hall-Garden-view print by Kornelie Gerland in before postings was send to me, obviously showing another spot in this unknown castle. I have a feeling it could be a Chateau or Grand House in or near Kornelie's native Strasbourg. Maybe with the help of readers we will be able to determine its location.  

Some playful Googling (Chateau + escalier + Strasbourg) delivered this pretty similar (but not identical and mirrored) French castle staircase in Chateau de Pourtalès in Strasbourg. It was once the house and playground of the very rich bankers wife Melanie de Bussière, Comtesse de Pourtalès (1836-1914) in the 19th century where she entertained some very famous visitors: Franz Liszt, Kaiser Wilhelm-II, Albert Schweitzer (he was a local), Leon Bakst and many others. Today the Chateau is in use as a Hotel.   

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

Kornelie Gerland ?

Kornelie Gerland 

(b. probably Strassburg 1865) 

Painter in Dresden.

(Possible printmaker).  

My brilliant special Austrian correspondent ("korrespondierendes Mitglied") Hannelore, who to my great pleasure recently accepted this splendid and important position, did it again. But first she corrects me on using the right terminology: Kurrent is the proper name for old German script not Sütterlin. It developed and evolved from 500 years of cursive writing. Sütterlin was a more modern version developed in 1911 based on Kurrent. It was abolished by  the NSDAP in 1941.  

Hannelore found a suitable candidate for the unidentified Gerland/Garland print in before posting. An artist named Kornelie Gerland is not be found in any of the known Artists Lexicons (that I have at my disposal) nor in Dresslers Kunsthandbuch. Which makes Hannelore's research all the more special finding a needle in a haystack.    

  

Kornelie Gerland (said to be a painter in Dresden in just one to be trusted biographical mentioning /occasion) was the eldest daughter of Strassburg geology and physics professor, composer, language and ethnic researcher, author and pioneering earthquake expert Georg Gerland. 

This extraordinary man and his more than interesting career and his families biography will be part of my upcoming publication. I can reveal here Kornelie's younger, and only brother Heinrich Gerland (also a professor) was married to Eva Schott, eldest daughter of Jena glass expert, inventor and entrepreneur Otto Schott. 

Otto Schott was a successful and according to his recently restored Jena villa a  prosperous glass-industrialist fabricating special optical and astronomical products (lenses) which resulted in a spectacular increase in quality of microscopic and astronomical imaging. Today it is a multi billion dollar international company. He closely worked together with Carl Zeiss.   

Otto Schott acted as patron to London based and exiled from Britain beginning of WW-1 German painter-lithographer Georg Sauter (1866-1937). Schotts eldest daughter Eva and her husband had met Sauter visiting London becoming friends. Schotts portrait was made by his protegé Georg Sauter (l.) and by the great  Max Liebermann himself (r.).  

Georg Sauter had married British Lillian, sister of John, Galsworthy (above by Sauter) after meeting her in London National Gallery. George's  brother in law was the author of the famous "Forsyte Saga" and awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1932. The book was made into one of the first European TV series and extremely popular in the late 1960's.

Sauter was a successful painter heavily influenced by James Abbot McNeill-Whistler (1834-1903), but also creating a scandal winning a second prize in  the prestigious 1909 Carnegie exhibition (read here) with this declared "erotic" painting ("the Bridal Morn" below) of a young women getting dressed by her mother and sister for her wedding day. Hard to understand what the fuzz was actually about a century later. The evolution of the human brain at full......     
  

Coincidence or clue ?

Eva Gerland-Schott died 1976 aged 89 in Hamburg-Wedel while I found the Strassburg Cathedral print, created most probably by her sister-in-law Kornelie Gerland, just 10 km. away in a Hamburg antiquarian shop last weekend. 

  

Thank you Hannelore. All information and suggestions welcomed

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

                

Gerland or Garland

Gerland or Garland ?

Recently this print surfaced in American Ebay signed in Sütterlin script: "Original Handdruck ......Gerland". It's maybe not as good or refined as Weimar printmaker Margarete Geibel's (1876-1955) many lovely "Goethehaus" prints although it is faintly remembering of her work.  

It is obviously a view from a great House or Castle into a walled garden.  

Print by Margarete Geibel  (below)

And then there's is this picture of a print showing Strassburg cathedral (Fr. "Nôtre-Dame"; Germ. "Munster") towering over rooftops. It could very well be by the same printmaker Gerland. The German owner of the Strassburg print identified (reading) its signature  which is not legible in the photo however as "Garland". 

Thieme-Becker artist Lexicon disregarding the handful of British painters only mentions a Swedish illustrator Jan Erik Garland born in Stockholm in 1905, so hardly a suspect to sign in German (pré WW2) Sütterlin script in which the "e" is very similar to our normal "n". 

In my 1921 and 1930 (last edition) copies of Dresslers Kunsthandbuch (which actually is an address book) I find one art-historian named Otto Gerland (b. 1835) and not one Garland, and besides: Otto was an art historian) 

Googling I found this painting (its in Ebay) the cathedral seen from a slightly different angle by Swiss born Vienna painter Karl Kromer (1889-1964) 

I invite all vistors and readers of this blog/post to help solve this mystery printmakers identity. 

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

 

Henriette Grimm and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Last week I found this book in an antiquarian bookshop: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 

"Meisterwerke der Druckgraphik" 

"Nirgends lernt man einen Künstler besser kennen als in sein Druckgraphik"

(Ernst Ludwig Kirchner) 

Kirchner (1880-1938) was busy, pioneering with (color) woodblock printmaking in Dresden as early as 1904 when he was captain of "Die Brücke" (active 1904-1913) expressionist artist group. He absorbed influences techniques and examples by many artists like Felix Valloton, at first almost copying styles and subjects.   

Also more traditional subjects by first generation German printmakers had his interest: Heine Rath, Siegfried Berndt and Emil Orlik no doubt.  

And then in those early years of his stormy and tumultuous career one can see his own interests, his feelings and emotions developing into his printmaking. 

Browsing through the book, 340 pages of joy, meeting, enjoying and revisiting many known, lesser and unknown prints by Kirchner there was this déjà-vu encounter.

I have no idea why Kirchners expressive 1904(!) "Burg bei Chemnitz" and Henriette's not dated Italian "San Fruttuoso" print share so many similarities, in composition, execution and in color. Kirchner lived near Dresden, visited and later lived in Switzerland, Henriette was born in Switzerland and later lived near Dresden. But something tells me there's a connection. Somewhere.

Henriette Grimm is mentioned in correspondence in the estate of well known Swiss childrens and fairy-tale book illustrator and graphic artist Ernst Kreidolf (1863-1956). In 1933 a dissapointing exhibition was held in Bern (Sw.) showing the works by Kirchner. Only 1100 visitors attended while in the before exposition 13.000 people visited Ernst Kreidolf’s exposition. Kreidolf was acquainted with both Kirchner and Henriette Grimm.  

Again a great Thank You for reader Hannelore who discovered the location of Henriette's print and pointed me to possible link between Ernst Kreidolf, Kirchner and Henriette Grimm. 
   

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

Henriette Grimm: Abazzia San Fruttuoso, Liguria, Italy

Puzzle solved ! Reader Hannelore from Austria succeeded, like a modern day  Miss Marple (see before posting) in solving the mystery and puzzle: where and what is this building depicted by unknown printmaker Henriette Grimm ? It proves the incredible powers of combining the human braincell-computer with interconnected modern digital possibilities: powerful, friendly and future possibilities beyond imagination and limitless.  

The other day I read an article how online modern internet gamers are "used" to solve medical and mathematical problems, DNA amino-acid sequencing and other extremely complex puzzles, dilemma's, mathematical and environmental  problems. Just incredible, read here (link)*    

From the armchair in 2017 it is possible, without much effort, to reconstruct this  small part of the visit of Henriette, of whom we still know so very little, to the monastery of San Fruttuoso hidden deep in a lagune on the Ligurian coast of Italy some 20 km. south of Genova. It can only be reached oversea by boat departing from the fishing village of Camogli. Henriette was one of the many woman artists that I am researching who visited Italy. (Henriëtte will appear among the some 300 short biographies of forgotten pioneering German women printmakers published soon). 

Enjoy !

Camogli, Liguria, It. 

And with a birds-eye view:

And from historical photographs it can even be determined when approximately Henriette visited San Fruttuoso to sketch the buildings for later rendering them into a print: after 1903 and probably just before 1915. After the small top building (3 windows) was added and before it was enlarged (+ 2 windows, arrow) . 

The historic and picturesque site, today is almost unchanged by time, below shown in the 1950's and although "discovered an exploited": almost untouched by modern tourisme. 

Thank you Hannelore !!

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

Henriëtte Grimm: Summers Puzzle

Last week Austrian reader Hannelore Greinecker-Morocutti, herself an illustrator and artist send me a piece of last month's "Summer Puzzle". 

Above an example of Hannelore's work, a print reminding me strongly of the image of British actress Joan Hickson (1906-1998) in her role as Miss Marple. 

Mrs. Hickson, in later, life resembling in looks and in posture closely my dear late mother in law. 


Joan Hickson played Agathe Christies (1890-1976) detective in full color for many years after legendary Dame Margaret Rutherford (1892-1972) did for years in the age of black & white. 












As it happens Henriette Grimm illustrated a 1924 book: "Tanz, Jugend, Gluck" (Dance, Youth, Happiness) with "original" lithographic prints and etchings, it would be interesting to know what exactly is inside the book.  

And Googling I even managed to find some more examples of Henriëttes art. 

  

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