Karl Hentschel: German printmaker & ceramist in Holland.

Hentschel, Karl Franz Gustav

           (Dessau, Sachsen-Anhalt 01-12-1884 – 08-05-1859 Tittmoning, Lower Bavaria)

Painter, graphic artist, printmaker and ceramist. Son of Karl Hentschel and Louise Wolf. Studied at Dresden “Königliche Kunstakademie” under Eugen Bracht (1842-1921). Hentschels presence in the Netherlands is recorded from 1909 (when he was 25), living and working in several places in the Netherlands (Egmond aan Zee, Alkmaar, Amsterdam, Heerlen, Schoorl etc..). He married in 1918 Helena Catharina (Lena) Block (born Amsterdam 1891).

In the years he lived in Holland Hentschel is known to have taught woodblock printmaking techniques to Dutch printmaker Jo Bezaan(1894-1952). He  returned to Germany in 1923, settling in Dresden, with an address living in Groß Schönau. Today he seems largely forgotten and obscured, I happened to stumble over a postcard print by him in a local auctions site selling old postcards and decided to investigate.    

Het huis 't Sluisje" in the historic inner city of Amersfoort. A medieval city palace.
Where I (the author) spend a good deal of my late teens with my best friend JW who happened to live here. 
Lithographic print by artist Jo Bezaan.  

This house is probably the best known historic landmark of old-Amersfoort. Numerous artists have created paintings, etching, prints, photos etc.. of this spot.     

In the late 1930 when Hentschel was forbidden to work as a painter (“Berufsverbot”), being of the Jewish faith, he turned to ceramics and became a respected and well-known potter and ceramic artist.

Besides his pottery, collectable and regularly offered in auctions, Hentschel is remembered by his monochrome woodblock prints published as postcards showing picturesque Dutch scenes (Amsterdam & Dordrecht are the only two examples I found so far) published by W. Nederkoorn in Alkmaar (above), and an iconic 1919 poster for Amsterdam warehouse “de Bijenkorf”. 

After his death the potter’s studio in Tittmoning on the Austrian border was continued by potter Erna Leitner(b. 1919) in 1959. It produced some really  nice pottery, simple straight forward design and a joy for for every day use. 

  

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