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.

Paul Berger Bergner: Dore Hoyer

Paul Berger Bergner

(Prag 10-02-1904 - 18-07-1978 Mannheim 

German expressionist painter, etcher and printmaker 

Reader Archimandrill (again) solved the mystery printmaker in before posting. Thank you ! Here are some of the things I've assembled trying to understand the times, people and circles to place Steven's woodcut portrait of Dore Hoyer. 

Paul Berger Bergner was born in Prag as son of Paul Bergner and his wife Maria Tadler. Paul sr. was a restaurator and later the museum director of the Rudolfinum the famous Museum building, Concert Hall and House of Parliament from 1918-1939 in Prag overlooking river Moldau. 

When his father died young Paul Jr. went to study in the painting studio of the  porcelain factory in Schlackenwirth near Karlsbad (Karlovi Vary) and later with Walter Klemm (1883-1957). Klemm had started with his friend Carl Thiemann (1881-1966) a studio in Prag in 1908. Both men were born in Karlsbad by the way. Klemm had been taught by Emil Orlik (1870-1932) and later in Vienna by Kolo Moser (1868-1918). He was appointed professor in Berlin in 1910.

In 1925 Paul entered the Art Academy in Dresden (connection with Dore Hoyer ) to study with painter Robert Sterl (1867-1932). His studio and most of his work was lost in the anglo-american destruction of Dresden in 1945. The same faith struck his friend artist printmaker Maj Hemberg (1906-1992).

After the war he moved to Mannheim and became a painting teacher at Mannheim "Fach-hochschule" to become its director in 1957. He had a relationship with Thea Piekara and they had a son Paul who was born in 1939. 

Paul Berger Bergner's etched portrait of Josef Paul Hodin (Prag 1905 - 1995 London) a famous aesthete and art critic (Tate Museum) who'd fled to London in 1944. Hodin was about the same age as Paul and also born in Prag. 

Portraits of Josef Hodin by Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) from a Prag family and who'd recovered in Dresden meeting expressionist circles after WW1 (left) and Ulli Nimptsch RA (1897-1977) (right) a German sculptor-painter who'd emigrated to London before WW2. He'd studied in Berlin Arts and Craft School for applied arts in Berlin 1915-1917. 

This posting now becoming a "who is who" in Expressionism: Nimptsch by Kokoschka.

And a book by Josef Paul Hodin on Paul Berger-Bergner  

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

Walther Klemm on Ebay

Walter Klemm

(1883-1957) 

German printmaker

6 Woodblock prints 1922 on Ebay

Six wonderful original and signed bird prints in the Japanese way, amazingly they've never been framed and are still together after 90 years as Book of Birds nr. 38/100. By one of the finest German printmakers. Ending in two days from now. (Sold for only €45 each) 

I still don't understand why certain offers on international Ebay do not seem to appear in my national search queries. This is one of them: I  just happened to stumble upon it. The last three are hardly ever seen "on line". This a good opportunity to help remember me to plan a posting on Klemm's other bird prints soonest. 

Helene Mass (Maß), printmaker (IV)

Between 1875 and 1900 Berlin’s population (like those of London and Paris) roughly doubled. From 1 to 2 million (today 3,5 million). Around 1880 the Königliche Kunst und Gewerbe Schule was established after British Arts and Craft schools) and soon after a dozen more followed in most of Germany’s cities. In this Institution between 1890-1893 Walter Leistikow taught and  among them was Hélène Maß.   

Most of the world’ s todays great cities developed were great rivers meet the sea. There are exceptions: Paris, great river no sea. Berlin has neither sea nor Great River and rivers Spree and Havel, confluences of river Elbe are hardly navigable but creating a lovely lake district nearby. 

It was here, on the borders of the Wannsee in 1910 Max Liebermann, Germany’s great impressionist painter build his Villa Liebermann and retreated from the world, like Monet in Givenchy, to paint his garden and immediate surroundings.

Max Liebermann, one of the many paintings with chestnut and garden bench. 

Lower: Hélène Maß, (right: courtesy private collection of  Felicity Naylor)

Among the earliest German attempts on modern printmaking was Norwegian Edvard Munch (1863-1944) who was active in Berlin even before Orlik arrived. 

And in Munich Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and his muse Gabriëlle Münter (1877-1962) were “at it” in the first years of the XXth century. But these artists making their later name and fame not by their printmaking but by painting. And their unusual love affair of course.   

Berlin in those years will have been riddled with Art Galleries, Art Shops, Workshops, Studio's and exhibitions held everywhere every day of the 52 weeks of the year. Around 1890-1910 Berlins cultural and artistic influences and popularity, it's many academies, schools, tutors and established artist matching London, Paris and Prag.

"Spree-schlepper" (Spree tugboat) and "bei den Spreefischern" Berlin 1906 prints by Thiemann and Klemm auction catalogue thumbnails. My WBR (web based research, with its limitations and restrictions) so far failed to locate them in color and reasonable resolution. Readers are invited to help discovering them.

In 1906 Walter Klemm and Carl Thiemann visited their colleague and teacher Orlik in Berlin. In 1907 they participated in an exhibition in Hamburg and several works of both men were discussed (reviewd and appraised) later in 1908 in "Zeitschrift für Verfielfaltigende Kunst". Several Hamburg and Prague views and these two River Spree Berlin prints were discussed. And also Thiemann’s swann and Klemm’s turkeys.

Also mentioned and much appraised was the colorful and "Japanese in execution" pine-print by Thiemann, probably the horizontal print below. The pines founnd around the lake Grünewald (Grünewaldsee), a popular and beautiful location forever linked to the many paintings by Mass' painting teacher Walter Leistikow. 

(Shiro Kasamatsu: "Kinokunisaka in Rainy Season")

See also this very fresh posting on Emil Orlik.

All pictures borrowed (reblogged) freely from the internet for friendly, educational non commmercial use.

(to be continued)