Jørgen Luplau Janssen

Jørgen Luplau-Janssen 

( 1869-1927)

Danish impressionist painter, professor and unexpected printmaker.

(with his first first wife Marie Borup)

Ebay keeps astonishing me because of the regular washing up of unknown prints and sometimes unknown printmakers. Like these two prints.      

Jørgen Luplau Janssen was educated at the Royal academy of arts in 1885 and joined Peder Krøyer (1851-1909) in his painting school in 1891 for further training. In 1909 he went to Paris to study at the Académie Ranon. He became a well respected painter of landscape and portrait of which is Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1831-1855) the most celebrated. 

I presume the print is showing a (Danish ?) soldier or guard watching dreadnoughts of the German navy Hoch-see fleet on the horizon. 

I have no doubt Luplau-Janssen's endeavors at woodblock printing will have been inspired by his fellow Danish colleague Emil (Hansen) Nolde (1867-1956) who, initially trained as a traditional wood-engraver (xylograph) and after having studied and worked in Kopenhagen, Munich, St. Gallen and Paris (Academie Julian) returned to Kopenhagen in 1901 living in winter in Berlin. He even met and married his wife Ada Vilstrup (1879-1948) in Kopenhagen in 1902. Changing his name from Hansen in Nolde on the occasion.  In 1927 the painter printmaker returned to stay in the region where he was born. It was the year Luplau-Janssen died. Noldes' house and gardens, just on the German side of the Danish border are now a museum, his birthplace (the hamlet of Nolde) just on the other side.  

5 Dampfer (steamers) by Nolde 

In 1905 Lupla-Janssen was appointed professor at the Royal Academy in Kopenhagen where he taught in arts and model. Besides he was a keen amateur astronomer. His son Carl Luplau Janssen (1889-1971) the Danish astronomer.  

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

Emma Meyer (Mayer), Danish printmaker

Emma Meyer (Mayer)

(Emilie Leonore Meyer)

1859-1921

Danish landscape painter, arts and crafts artist, teacher

etcher and woodblock printmaker.

It has taken me some time to discover the identity of Emma Mayer. One reason is because there are no records of her as a printmaker in the www. No pictures, no auction sales, nothing but a handful of her paintings. Well actually, there was one, shown in this Blog even, but it was not attributed to her because the signature wasn't recognized. The colours of the Danish flag (var. "Union Jack", or "Danish Star") and the name of one of the earliest cultivated Dahlia varieties could have been a clever clue leading to Denmark. Some say 1882 others claim 1911. Emma had picked a bunch somewhere and saw their decorative potential in a print. 

It’s great to find territory that has not been trodden on before, revealing an obscured and unexpected printmaker is sometimes the reward.

A second reason of not being able to identify her earlier is the coincidence  there’s another contemporary artist-painter, by the same name. Both women have been mixed up before I’ve noticed, even in official writings. The other Emmy Meyer was born 1866 in Frankfurt, joined the Worpswede Artist Colony, was a friend of Otto Ubbelohde and died in Worpswede in 1938. This Emmy was taught and educated artistically in Berlins Zeichen und Mahlschule in the mid 1890’s. The school that for many years was run by Else Schmiedeberg. 

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But my Emma (Emilie Leonore) Meyer was born in Flensburg as third child   of Fritz Meyer (1817-1891) a judge in Denmarks Supreme Court and Maria Frederikke Dalberg (1832-1917).

Three more children were born, the last one was Jennie Sophie, in 1866. She was to become a famous porcelain decorator and painter with the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory and exhibited worldwide.

Emma studied in Denmark with landscape painter Harald Foss (1842-1922) and with Denmarks most important impressionist painter Peder Krøyer (1851-1909) (see before posting) .

Emilie Mundts painting is on the wall in the couples studio next to the portrait of Emilie  Mundts father, a Danish mathematician and politician. 

Emma also followed trainings with painters Emilie Mundt (1843-1922) and Marie Luplau (1848-1925) (above) who were leading a painting school for women within the Danish Academy of Fine Arts. The history of these two women, lovers, great painters and feminists “avant la lettre” and their painting school is well worth reading and perhaps will follow in a next posting. Emma is buried in the same cemetery in Frederiksberg as her father and the two women teachers, and to this day very much loved and appreciated Danish painters.

Here are the pictures of a bundle of woodblock prints that I’ve found recently. Now Emma is finally on the map of Printmakers and Printmaking maybe more examples of her graphic work will show up.

She exhibited in the Royal Charlottenborg Castle from 1885-1922 and won prestigious awards like the Acadamy Award in 1895-96 and the Sødring Price for landscape painting in 1901.

In October 1908 I found her name among the exhibitors in Hamburg showing works from the collections of the Kopenhagen Kunstnerforeningen along with etchings by the the combined contemporary German Masters: Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, Siegfried Berndt, Emil Nolde, Käthe Kollwitz, Carl Moll, Walter Leistikow and many if not all of the other great names of the period.

Dinkelsbühl

Emma reworked some blocks for her Hamburg Alster print and experimented with slightly different colours. Both prints were in the bundle.

She was in Hamburg again in 1913, along with painter and printmaker Friedrich Lissmann (1880-1815) who’s great prints and sad life story I’ve unveiled in the Linosaurus here* and Gretchen Wohlwill (1878-1962) member of the Hamburg Seccesion with an equally sad biography being Jewish. She had recently returned from Paris studying with Matisse in his Academy (1908-1911)

And I found a clue Emma had been teaching in Hamburgs Arts and Crafts (Kunst und Gewerbe) school. Which has a great museum btw. 100 meters from the main Bahnhof, were concerts are given on authentic instruments and  housing great collections that will take more then one day to visit.

All pictures borowed from the Internet for friendly and educational use only.

M. Snestrup

M. Snestrup

unknown Danish printmaker

I discovered this woodcut in a fleamarket, titled: "girl talking to the plants". It is signed Org. Traesnit, Eger Trisk in Danish: original woodcut, own print. Signed in pencil: M. Snestrup. There is nothing special to it, not technical nor easthetical. But the subject is rather sweet: who isn't enchanted by the mermaids mythology.

There is nothing further to be found on M. Snestrup, the printmaker, on Google. Just a similar print offered in Denmark.

So: I believe it's not a girl at all but a mermaid sitting on the seafloor. Hans Christian Anderson's ((1805-1975) story. And the famous statue by Edvard Erikson made in 1913 "Den lille Havfrue" on the Langelinie in Kopenhagen.

Besides many images of medieval woodcuts I found only this Dutch example (the maker unknown to me too) of "the mermaid of Westenschouwen" 1933. After a local mythical story.
I am not going to make this a posting on mermaids in art (mermaids have inspired so many artists) but when you have only the slightest interest in mermaids and her history you must visit this very interesting Blog: http://mermaid-williambond.blogspot.com/ William Bond having more surprising and interesting viewpoints towards the world we live in that I found worth reading by the way. Recommended for all female readers i.p.

From Williams Blog I borrowed these two pictures of mermaids located, as in M. Snestrup's, on the seafloor.

Right : Arthurs Rackham (1867-1939) "Ondine" .


Left: Arthur Hacker (1858-1919) "the water maiden".


This picture of an oil-painting by Pre-Raphaelite painter John Collier (1850-1934), "the land baby" to close this posting written to see if some-one knows this obscured artist M. Snestrup.

With a special thank you to Lotusgreen who reminded me to take better care of "borrowed" pictures and Blog-ethics.