Hildegard Eichwede: Hamburg Uhlenhorst Gaswerke

Hildegard Eichwede 
(prob. b. Hannover ar.1880 ? - ?) 

(painter,  printmaker)

"Hamburg Barmbek  

Uhlenhorst Gaswerke"

Hildegard Eichwede (Barmbek Gaswerke in Hamburg) 

This print is being offered in the respected Frankfurt Gallerie Joseph Fach, known for its remarkable collection of very fine prints. The price of € 1250 is suggesting it is of extreme quality and/or importance, which it possibly is. It came to my knowledge some time ago and I tried to find out more about this print + the artist. Would I have it to my collection of German women printmakers ? Yes of course. But I'm not a masochist believing it ever will, just cannot afford. I suggest this print should be in the collections of the Hamburgs Kunsthalle. Unobtainable as it may be the most interesting part for me and my research is the artist being completely unknown. She is not known by any other work nor is there any biographic link to be found. Sadly Hildegard has not left a clue or a date on her print. The Barmbek Gaswerke were in function from the 1870's until the 1960's.  I suggest it was created around 1910.   

It reminded me technically (probably by the use of mainly gray and the similar  perspective, and probably because it was created by an artist related with Hamburg) of Agnes Salomon's Brussels Boulevard Vaugirard print (see posting here* ) or follow the label attached to this posting. For a long time Agnes graphic history consisted of just one print, untill my research disclosed a second one. Agnes probably gave up her artistic career after marriage and dedicated her life to motherhood. Could this hint at a shared faith (motherhood), could their prints point to at a mutual teacher ? And who would/could that possibly be ?. We know Agnes attended Munich graphic classes and also went to Paris and although I have a suggestion I will keep the name for later or to the serious researcher who may stumble over this posting and offers to help to identify Hildegard Eichwede.     

Agnes Salomon: Boulevard Vaugirard.

Besides, we peddled the Barmbek canal that is joined to the Alster basin visiting our son Paul and his Anne Maartje who are living and working nearby in this great city. Today hardly anything is reminding of this site once so important to the people and industries of Hamburg. The whole area is turned into very green and pleasant to live in communities.   

Hildegard Eichwede no doubt will prove to be a member of the Eichwede family from Hannover. Descending from the co-founder and later owners of the famous Bernstorff & Eichwede "Hoffbronze-giesserei" which existed until 1873 before it was taken over: Friedrich Wilhelm Eichwede (sometimes mentioned Ferdinand) (1791-1822) who was born in Berlin but married the daughter of Hannover Johann Friedrich Bernstorff (1766-1809) the original founding father, and started the Hannover Eichwede dynasty. 

I tried to tie Hildegard to this family but so far I did not succeed. Here's what I did find out in a nutshell. Hopefully a reader (who now must pass the despicable Google Warning System for which I feel deeply embarrassed and offer my sincere apologies)  will come to aid. 

Friedrich was succeeded as director by his son Wilhelm Christian Eduard Eichwede (1818-1890) but with him the connection to the next generation  of Hannover family members came to a halt. I did not find the name of his wife, nor of any brothers or sisters. 

He is probably the father of more then one son because from the mid 1800's  a Heinrich, Eduard and Ernst Eichwede all from Hannover can be found holding several industrial patents.

The most promising link might be to the family of Hannover architect Christian Hubert Julius Eichwede (1853-1936) who was the father of an important but short lived Hannover architect Ferdinand Eichwede (1878-1909) who was the father of concert pianist Ingrid Eichwede (b. 1905) married to Jewish composer Hans Heller (captured, and later killed, in Paris 1940 by the occupying Germans). After hiding she managed to escape with their son Peter (1929-2002) to America, Peter was also a painter. 

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And then there's the history of artist Gisela Lusser-Sautter (Posen 1914 - after 2009). Read the interview following the link.

In an interview she told of receiving painting lessons from “her mother and her sister Tante Marie Eichwede (Posen 1875-1944) who were both painters". She appeared to be the daughter of Dr. Julius Sautter(b. 1878 - after 1939). Could her mother have been  Hildegard Eichwede ? Dr. Julius Sautter is mentioned as  “Oberlandesgerichtsrat” a judge in the town of Celle (1923-1939) and relieved from his duties because of not being co-operative enough (not a faithful German) with the Nazi regime.  Celle is situated just some 20km. north-east of Hannover. 

In 1948 Gisela married Ir. Robert Lusser (1899-1969) a famous inventor and engineer who lost his first wife in allied bombing of their house that may have been directly aimed at him. See his interesting Wikipedia entry here*

Marie Eichwede (1875-1944) is mentioned as "Malerin" (painter) in Dresslers Kunsthandbuch 1921 living in Hannover and likewise in 1930 but also mentioned as "Kunstgewerblerin" (Arts & Crafts artist). 

All clues and information about "who was and what happened to Hildegard Eichwede" are very much welcomed and will be treated with all respect.

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

  

This extraordinary print is for sale at Gallerie Joseph Fach Frankfurt 

     

Agnes Salomon II: at last, progress !

Although Agnes Salomon is not represented in my personal print collection she recently is the focus of my research. Agnes is "just one" one of the over 300 mostly obscured and hardly researched women in my collection of short biographies of German woman artist involved in pioneering woodblock printmaking. With the help of the Hamburg Jewish Community I received information that may help us on the way in reconstructing her life. This blog contribution to share the first attempt creating her short biography from scratch. 

The date read in her only publicly known print, "Boulevard de Vaugirard" (before posting) 1902 was given (introduced) in the book where the print was displayed" Wege zu Gabriele Münter und Käthe Kollwitz" (2014). 

The S in the monogram is reversed (deliberately/accidentally ?) (the 2 an accidentally  reversed and inverted 7 ...... ?)

In 1902, just aged 18 Agnes she left for Berlin-Charlottenburg  (possibly to her brother Siegfried who left for Berlin in 1893 ?) Mentioned below "Mal-Schulerin, Malerin": Painting student, painter.   

How she could be also in Paris in 1902 is an interesting question. The Vaugirard print is obviously showing the late fall of 1902(?). Her departure for Paris is not written down in Hamburgs official registration: she would have needed a passport or travelling document: did she travel from Berlin ? Her mother died in september 1902 (her father in 1900). A few years later, returned in Hamburg in 1907, she requested a passport to Spain, while she married a year later in 1908 again in Paris.... Intriguing !  In 1911, married, her (definite) departure for Paris was recorded.  

       

Genealogy attempt: Agnes Salomon.

(courtesy of Jürgen Sielemann, 
Chairman of the "Hamburger Gesellschafft für judische Genealogie"
c/o Jüdische Gemeinde Hamburg )  

Agnes was the last child of 5 by Jewish "Kaufmann, Geschäftsführer" (merchant,  head of company) in "Weiß- und Hollandische Waren" Samuel Moses Salomon. "Weißwaren" was used to describe wool- and cotton underwear,  pyjama's etc..., (see this shop in Berlin), but also pottery. 

"Holländische Waren" suggest wooden shoes, porcelain windmills and Gouda  cheese but in fact was used to describe "all goods tradable manufactured in neighbouring Netherlands". German "Posamenten" (French: passements) lace, yarn and embroidery; home textiles. "Posamentier" merchant in ......)

Of great importance were the colourful printed cotton fabrics that until this day are manufactured in the Netherlands and in use to  locally create traditional African dresses. Read here the surprising and very interesting history of this trade (Vlisco). 

Considering the studies of Agnes in Munich (when ? 1902-1907 ?), possibly Berlin and Paris her father had been probably not the average middle class Jewish potts, pans, knickers and home textile shop-owner, but probably was involved in the import and export business, a commissionaire-trader. In Hamburg I found shop owners with the family name Salomon (poss. family members ? ) active in more or less the same trade and business ("Weiss- Hollandische Waren", cotton, cloths, yarn, lace etc...), but not her father Samuel.   

Translating his recorded addresses in Hamburg 1890's records, in hard to read old-German script, may help to estimate his social status. All help is welcomed.   
    

Kiel around 1850

"Geschäftsführer" Samuel Moses Salomon (Kiel 03-07-1838 - 11-11-1900 Hamburg) married  Lea Isaacson ("Schneiderin" tailor/seamstress,  (Neubukow near Rostock 04-01-1843 -  26-09-1902 Hamburg). They are not buried together  (no idea about the reason) and were married in Hamburg 1874. 

Neubukow (Mecklenburg) around 1900

Samuel M. Salomon was the son of Moses Salomon and Betty Benjamin and Lea was bon in the village of Neubukow where a small Jewish community existed, the daughter of Salomon Isaacson and Lina Wolff (b. 1815), either of them a librarian in Neubokow. 
Their 5 children were all born in Hamburg: Siegfried (1876), Wilhelm (1879), Helene (1881), Friederike (1883) and Agnes (1884). Remarkable: all Christian and not Jewish names. Hopefully this can be explained later.

Brother Wilhelm may have died in WW-1 serving in the Navy and Siegfried (who also left for Berlin) possibly was buried in Hamburg 1908. Of Julius and Friederike I have no other clues.  

As far as I know all works (but this drawing) by Agnes von Bülow-Salomon are signed or monogrammed A.Salomon (A.S). There are too few works known to draw any conclusions but as we know she married in 1908, left for Berlin and started a family (3 daughters) and later moved to Brussels it is possible she abandoned an artistic career to dedicate herself to her husband and family. Not an uncommon scenario. Most successful women artist stayed unmarried or shared lives with a soulmate or female partner. 

Before  following Agnes to Spain I share this this one drawing I found in an auction catalogue. It shows the worlds 20th century most important conductor Wilhelm Fürtwängler (1886-1954) and thanks to Agnes' signing (von Bülow), dating and titling, I am almost certain she saw maestro Fürtwängler in Paris 1931 when his very successful series of performances of Wagners "Tristan and Isolde" in France started. Living in Brussels Paris was just a train ride away. 

Co-incidance:  Emil Orlik also did Fürtwänglers portrait. In 1928.  
  

In 1907 Agnes received documents/permission to travel to Fuenterrabia in Spain. These few letters in Hamburgs civic registration, discovered last week and a century later, were a great surprise to my research. Not only it proved to locate one (and possibly two) of her scarce known paintings but it also directed me to a place where I found several possible leads and indications to my "when's, how's and why's". 

All (translating and genealogical) help is welcomed. 

All pictures embiggen by mouse-click 

Next: Agnes in Fuenterrabia - Spain.   

Marie Wippermann & Agnes Salomon in Paris

Agnes Salomon

 (married journalist Joachim von Bülow 1908)

(Hamburg 1884 - 1939 Brussels) 

Painter and printmaker 

Agnes Salomon (poss. "Dame in Weiss", before 1904)

She was the daughter of Hamburg "Kaufmann" (merchant) Samuel Salomon  and Léa Isaacson (1843-1902). Lea is buried in Hamburg Ohlsdorf cemetery. 

A Samuel Salomons is buried here also but in another plot (without dates) 35 years later in 1937. It might be her father although he by then must have reached a respectable high age, not impossibly but maybe another relative rests here (brother/nephew?). Her mother Lea's ancestors possibly can be traced to a Jewish community in Neubukow near Rostsock and I have a hunch Samuel Salomon might be related to a very prosperous Schleswick/Dittmarschen Jewish cigar manufacturer originating from Stavenhagen (also near Rostock) with honorary title "Komerzienrat" bearing the same name several decades earlier. On my request the Hamburg Jewish community offered help with the ancestry/genealogy because my arm-chair research from neighbouring Friesland had come to a halt. Results will be shared in due time. Lea was 41 btw giving birth to Agnes and she died when Agnes was 18, the same year we find her in Paris. Some interesting questions arise: was she the last and/or only child ? How did her father finance her studies in Munich (under Angelo Jank and Christian Landenberger) and Paris ? She married into an aristocratic family, the son of a diplomat and military so surely there must be traces of her fathers prosperity and business in Hamburg allowing her to study abroad.   

Agnes Salomon (Paris Brd. Vaugirard, 1902)
(Trees suggesting fall or early winter) 

Print stitched with contemporary photo. Entrance to metro next to  small building on the square, right  

Why research an artist that is so little known, forgotten and obscured ? I had Agnes in my archive files with just one print (and some paintings of which the marines surely are not by her but by an unknown "A. von Bulow"). It is however a very early print, showing Paris Boulevard de Vaugirard, adjacent to "Place de Maine" (and the Metro entrance). Opposite, then was the backside of Montparnasse train station demolished in the 1960's to make place for the imposing over Paris Tour Montparnasse. 

  

It is possibly the earliest woodblock prints by a German woman artist I've ever come across. 

Gabrielle Munter (Herbst in Sèvres, 1907)

In these years later well known Gabrielle Munter (1877-1962) was also fiddling with block printing in Paris (1907-08) when Agnes Salomon created her Bvd. Vaugirard print. 

Albert Marquet: Paris Boulevard Madeleine (also with Metro entrance)
Compare it with  Agnes' printed Boulevard Vaugirard version 

Although not an Art Historian by birth or academic training I've wondered about the similarities in Marie Wippermans prints with painter Albert Marquet (see before posting) who had become seriously popular in Paris in the first years of the 20 century. Marquet was a close friend of Matisse and colleague of Raoul Dufy with whom he travelled and painted together in Normandy in 1906 (below posters). 

Rose Friedrich (Dresden): Stilllife fruits in bowl.

Rose Friedrich (1877-1953) from Dresden was student of Matisse in Paris and so was Marie's close friend painter Ida Gerhardi (1862-1927) also from Lüdenscheid who lived and worked in Paris for 20 years (1891-1913), friend of August Rodin and Kathe Kollwitz. 

Académie Colarossi (Ida Gerhardi standing right)  

Marie Wippermann also choose these decorative and colourful advertising murals for her Seine woodblock print (see before posting).    

Marquet: Trouville 

Dufy: Trouville 

Only recently, after getting in contact with Marie Wippermanns grandson (see before posting, these prints were accidentally sold and never meant to leave the family, but that is another story) I came to see this print of a handsome woman in light coat and feathered hat in a Paris café by Agnes Salomon. She wasn't married then, she was in 1908 in Paris, with aristocrat, journalist and self-taught painter Joachim von Bülow from Breslau but his (military) ancestors also originated from the Rostock area. The couple later moved to Berlin and eventually to Brussels.  

The Café print was in the personal belongings of Marie Wipperman. Who like Agnes, married the same year she returned from Paris in Halver near Lüdenscheid, Germany moving into her house at Marktstrasse 11 in Halver (above a: right, b: middle). 

  

Exhibition poster by Emanuel Josef Margold (1888-1962)
(Sold for over $ 16.000)

My renewed research efforts (continuing business) resulted in finding the 1902 woodblock print of Boulevard Vaugirard exhibited in the Rudolfinum in Prag in 1907 (68th Jahresausstellung des Kunstvereins Böhmen (Bohemia).

Amedee Joyau (Dunes, Bréville, Normandy)

Hans Neumann ("Aristokrat")

A long row of very interesting and well known international artists took part and I suppose because of the presence of several French and British, were invited to join. 

William Nicholson (Sarah Bernardt )

Allen Seaby (Two Swans) 

Dagmar Hooge (Badende Mädchen)  

Jean Veber (Soiree bourgeois) 

Of which I was able to trace various exhibited prints (selection above). The café portrait by Agnes Salomon possibly was mentioned in a 1904 print catalogue as "Dame im Weiss". Agnes on that occasion was mentioned living in Munich. 

Please send all information on Agnes von Bülow-Salomon and help me to write and complete her short biography. 

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