Max Kahlke: Frisian and Schleswig coast

Kahlke, Max

(Glückstadt  13-01-1892 – 28-02-1928 Kiel) 

Painter and graphic artist. 

Kahlke's rendering of "Clouds, Sea, Tide and Space". And a much treasured print by my favorite but much obscured and neglected Dutch printmaker: Louis Haver (1906-1969).

Max Kahlke was the son of Jacob Kahlke (1866-1935) and Minna Raave (1869-1964). He was born on the banks of the Elbe estuary in the small village of Glückstadt ones important for its herring ("matjes") fishery. 

He studied 1911-12 in Stuttgart “Akademie für bildende Künste” with Robert Poetzelberger (1856-1930) and 1912-14 in Weimar “Großherzoglich-Sächsiche Kunstschule” with Fritz Mackensen (1866-1953). But according his own words he did not think very highly of his academical training but being mostly inspired and influenced by Tirol painter Albin Egger-Lienz (1868-1926). Albin Legger taught in Weimar 1912-13 after being denied a professorship in Munich Academy in 1910 because of a Kaiser  displeasing painting.... 

Sea and Clouds 

He was a member of the “Schlewig-Holsteinische Kunstgenossenschaft” and the “Hamburger Künstlerverein von 1832”. In WWI he fought as a soldier in Flanders, was wounded and treated for many months in field hospitals. 

Friedrich Lissmann, Sea & Tirns. 

Kahlke's fascinating for this landscape reminds me of Bremen born Friedrich Lissmann (1880-1915) he fought in the trenches too but did not return from Flanders Fields. I shared my admiration for Lissmann in this Blog 6 years ago here* and here*.

A photograph of a farmhouse seen through wind battered trees on Island Ameland (Neth.), much like in Kahlke's print. 

A print I showed many years ago here*

Short lived Kahlke, he only reached 36, is known and reminded for his portraits, moor landscape paintings and religious work for Schleswig churches but to me his woodcuts showing the North German coastal and tidal Wadden-sea landscapes are the most interesting works he created. His work is collected in several North German Museums: Altona-Hamburg, Flensburg, Glückstadt, Itzehoe and Schleswig Museums. 

And here's a photograph I took only last week on Island Ameland. Nord-Friesland (Germ.) near the Danish border and my Friesland (Neth.) aren't that far apart. There are 100 years and some 150 miles (as the crow flies) between both observations in this beautiful (World Heritage) part of the world. 

Tönning in Nord-Friesland (Ger.) a small village until the 1970's important for crab fishing. 

Do not hesitate sending me more examples of Kahlke's work for sharing in this Blog.

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

Blankenburg

E.G. (Bert) van Heusden1901-1983
Doctor, painter, poet and linocut printer

In 1586 permission was granted to build a house and a decoy to catch wild ducks on a newly formed sandbank in the immense Dutch river delta. First inhabitants were tenants Dirk Ariensz. Bisdommer and his son. 20 years before the first dikes were constructed to claim new land in the river Maas.

Other parts of the island and later adjacent sandbanks were also embanked and made dry (poldered). The Dutch way, claiming and reclaiming land, colonizing and working it. 60 years later a first church was build around a thriving agricultural community.

The Island grew slowly and moved naturally into the direction of the North sea. Thus blocking the passageway between Brielle and Maassluis, two of the Netherlands oldest cities. A road was build across the island to connect new ferry heads. New communities came to life. The island was named Rozenburg. The village, with a church, cemetery, school, village hall and doctors house: Blankenburg.

The wild western part of the Island was mainly formed by the sea after the digging and completion of the Nieuwe Waterweg (New Waterway) in 1872. Rotterdam's canalized outlet to the North Sea. This part of the island was called de Beer (the bear) also known as Bird Island. In the 1920’s some 150 species of birds were counted here.
This bird and wildlife sanctuary world famous in the Netherlands. Jac.P. Thijsse, Dutch naturalist and Verkade Album contributor, wrote about it. A nature reserve in the heart of one of the world’s busiest parts and ports.

Until the 1960’s. Most of the island was evacuated, farmhouses demolished and all was covered with 6 meters of sand to create Europoort: the world’s largest seaport of Rotterdam.

The sad thing about progression is that it is unstoppable. A society, a whole world and way of living vanished. Were once farmers farmed, people loved, died and were burried now endless rows of oil storage tanks and refineries dominate the horizon and mammoth ships dock.

There are not many pictures left of the old island situation. Some maps, of course. Everything is mapped in the Netherlands. Some drawings and some old photo’s. This Google Earth photo showing how man is capable of changing his environment.

Then, some years ago I haggled from a second hand bookshop dealer a bundle of small linocuts. On the other side of the country.

Very elegant and artistic pictures. Farmhouses, a ferry-dam, a church, the river Maas. The cover page also cut in linoleum in stylish Art Deco characters: Een land onder het mes (A land under the knife). The makers signature a mystery. Only last week his identity was revealed to me..

Linoleum Snedes en Druk van E.G. van Heusden. When you know it you see it and can read it. Bert van Heusden after medical school started his career in 1926 as the Islands doctor. As I did exactly 50 years later. Other Island. The cover and title of his album a clever and humorous clue to both his artistic and professional careers.

An estimate is he made the prints around 1930. I have no idea of the edition size of the album. This one is numbered 04.
He was an amateur painter and wrote poetry as well. His painting was regarded professional and his poetry during his lifetime highly respected and loved.

In later life doctor van Heusden specialized in rheumathic diseases and disorders. Bert van Heusden died in Arnhem in 1983.

Could he have foreseen cutting in linoleum and printing his images of a 400 year old landscape on thin Japan paper that was to disappear forever only 30 years later?

To honor him I show you all of his 12 chosen and vanished monuments of

BLANKENBURG (1568-1965)

You are invited to leave a comment when you enjoyed this posting as I did making it or otherwise found the reading interesting.

Double mouse-click on most pictures for larger images

If you are really interested: these prints are for sale, matted and framed, contact me at: g.caspers@hccnet.nl