Showing posts with label Cläre Neuhaus-Nissen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cläre Neuhaus-Nissen. Show all posts

Wednesday, 10 August 2016

Else Ruest, Heimatkünstler aus Hannover

Before I try to continu following printmaker Cäre Neuhaus (in before posting) I must "fit in" this artist first. I met her in september 1915 with Cläre Neuhaus in Bonn Obernier Museum in the “Graphische Wanderausstellung” (traveling exhibition) with later famous painter/etcher Anna Feldhusen (1867-1951) from Bremen, and many others. 

Anna Feldhusen


Ruest, Elisabeth (Else)
(Hannover 19-04-1891 – 28-03-1945 Hannover)
 Landscape and flower painter, “Gebrauchsgraphiker” and graphic artist (no woodblock prints known).
"Heimatkünstlerin"
"Home-painter: working locally choosing mainly topics "close to home".  


She died in the allied bombing of Hannover in the night of march 28th 1945 destroying also her house, studio and all her remaining work (90% of the city's centre was destroyed by allied bombing killing 6000 inhabitants). These 4 examples are all I was able to find. This print below I found in Neil's Adventures in the Printtrade (2012) who has stumbled also over this forgotten printmaker.  


She had been a student of the “Großherzoglichen Malerinnenschule Karlsruhe“ which was founded October 1885 and in function until 1923 by uniting private painting schools and classes and was under the patronage of grand-duchess Luise of Prussia (1838-1923). Because of the overwhelming numbers of women students the Karlsruhe academy professors, many ran private schools besides their academy work, were not able to take any more private students. Women had to wait untill 1923 before being allowed to study in the Academies. In the school students were taught by academy professors. On of Else's teachers in the school is mentioned to have been  "V.Roman". See end of this posting for more details and some remarkable findings. 



Although she must have been a prolific artist  just a few examples (and not the best pictures, sorry) of her etchings are available.



She was among the early visitors and regularly staying in the village of Schwalenberg in beautiful county Lippe near Detmold. Thanks to artists like her the little town grew into an artist colony. Berlin Academy professor  Hans Licht (1876-1935) took his students here for "en plein-air" (outdoors) painting in the french Barbizon school (1830-1870) tradition.  

Hans Licht

Printmaker and "Heimat" painter Ernst Rötteken who was born, lived, worked and died in Detmold was a frequent visitor. 

Ernst Rotteken (1910)

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


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V.(iktor) Roman (1841-1916) was a teacher at drawing in the “Bender’schen Lehranstalten” in Weinheim (in Bavaria’s Black Forest). His younger brother Max Wilhelm Roman (Freiburg 30-0-4-1849 – 08-05-1910 Karlsruhe) however was a painter and lithographer and had studied in Nürnberg. He was appointed 1886 as a teacher in the newly founded Karlsruhe “Malerinnenschule” acting as its director from 1895.  I think “V. Roman” as Else's teacher is probably a mistake. 




Max Wilhelm is more likely to have been Else Ruest’s teacher at the “Malerinnenschule“ in Karlsruhe. He married 1891, 21 one years younger, painter, book cover designer and illustrator, graphic artist and ceramist Käthe Foersterling (Dresden 1871 – after 1910 Dresden) daughter of Dresden painter Otto Foersterling (1843-1904). She had possibly been his student because she’d also studied at Karlsruhe “Malerinnenschule”. She later taught in this school as a professor of flower painting in 1902 and also in the “Kunstgewerbeschule” 1903-07. 



She and her two children returned to Dresden 1907 giving up her position as a professor, it was said “because of her sickly children” Maria and Wilhelm: Maria indeed died Dresden 04-02-1910. The real reason was her husband and her mother discouraged her and made her give up her career and position because of her mental health. She'd moved to her native Dresden for treatment where she lived disillusioned. Wilhelm Jr. and his father are said to have created linocut prints. Hear year of death is unknown. 




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Tuesday, 9 August 2016

Cläre Neuhaus-Nissen, printmaker

Neuhaus-Nießen (Nissen), Cläre 
(Hannover 1878 – 1950 Olten)


I still know so little about this painter and printmaker and what follows is what I've puzzled together so far. I traced Cläre to the small town of Fürstenfeldbruck some 20 Km. east of Munich. Seeing the few prints I know by her I think I have a pretty good idea whom she turned to learning the art of woodblock print making: Dachau is not more them 15 km. from where she lived.  
Walter Klemm (1883-1957) and Carl Thiemann (1881-1966) in Dachau passed on their pioneering printmaking skills to numerous contemporary artist. 



She is mentioned as “die Malerin Cläre Nießen-Neuhaus” present at the founding meeting of the “Kunstverein Fürstenfeldbruck” in 1924. In Fürstenfeldbruck..

Fürstenfeldbruck in 1929
The picturesque village had become a refuge for artists fleeing overcrowded Munich. Also present at that meeting was Selma des Coudres (1883-1956) a painter also known to have tried at  woodblock printmaking and in a style betraying lessons by Carl Thiemann in Dachau too. We shall follow and trace Selma in next post bringing us to Riga in Latvia and meeting some more interesting artists. 


Proof of a trip to........ Italy, Dalmatia ?

Cläre (for Klara, Clara ?) exhibited, with others*, in 1915 in the “Wanderausstellung der Vereinigung nordwestdeutscher Künstler” in the Obernier Museum in Bonn: Cläre Neuhaus (München) showed “Alte Gasse”. I do not know which print that was but I do not think it is the ("mediterranean") one above. 

* One of them was Elisabeth (Else) Ruest (1861-1945) an painter-printmaker from Hannover known by several etchings showing the artist village of Schwalenberg near Detmold. She will also be shown in next posting.     



These two examples (Dachau moor landscapes ?) are clearly signed Cläre Neuhaus. The monogram she uses seems to be designed after Thiemans example. 

It can be difficult in Germany how to read a married girls name. Her families (maiden) name can be either placed before or after her husbands name. I have not yet found a rule explaining. Considering she was mentioned Neuhaus in 1915, Nissen-Neuhaus in 1924 and Neuhaus-Nissen in 1942 I guess she met and married a Mr. Nissen somewhere between 1915-1924. 


She is represented in the 1942 “Ausstellungskatalog der Großen Deutschen Kunstausstellung im Haus der Deutschen Kunst” in Munich with a painting: Cläre Neuhaus-Nissen, München:  Nr. 354 in room 4: “Sonneblumen, Öl”. 


"Haus der Deutsche Kunst" was the first of Adolph Hitlers prestigious and megalomane Nazi megastructures to open in 1937 showing to the Nation Nazi approved art. 





And although the surviving 1942 exhibition catalogue photograph wants us to believe it is painting 354a, showing a mixed bouquet, I really think it's the big one to the far left, 93a, showing some serious SUNFLOWERS ! Hitlers helpers bought works of art here for the proposed Nazi Museums. Cläre's Sunflowers were sold by the way btw.
"Somewhere, someone" wrote: 1932 in Dresden as her year of death and I'\m not sure if the 1942 Munich exhibition showed her work posthumously. She is not mentioned in any Artists Lexicon nor in my Dresslers Kunsthandbuch (1921 & 1930) other then mentioning her living in Fürstenfeldbruck Münchner-strasse 31 in 1930. 


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Please send anything (any scrap of information, fact or pictures that may contribute to better understanding the life and career of Cläre Neuhaus-Nissen for sharing in this Blog and to help complete my Pioneering German Women Printmakers Index. 


Or just leave a comment.


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