Mona K. Gill

Mona K. Frill ?

=
Mona K. Gill 

(1908-1945)

Canadian painter and printmaker 

The picture that was here before was removed, demanded by
 Blogger after the owner complained about 

"theft" and violation of his rights.
I regret this, the removal, 
very much. To see the 
picture please 
visit Ebay 
here* 
or    
just Google: Mona K Gill
and see the woodblock print that
  besides the remarkable asking price mentioned 
in the comments, now has a correct makers name. Corrections were 
made by the, displeased by our friendly help, discussion and comments, seller. 
I will be on the look out for another copy of this print to show up in the Internet, which is just a matter of time. 

I stumbled over this very charming 1936 woodblock print in an American internet salesroom and because it is so very charming and I questioned the name the seller reads I'll share it today with you. Faithfull reader Archimandrill again, within 24 hours, helped identifying the unknown printmaker. Also I couldn't help remembering Charles last years posting in Modern Printmakers on Thomas Austen Brown (1857-1924) and this equally charming print by his wife Elisabeth Christie:

These two paintings of Texas cowboys signed and dated 1936 showing without a doubt the same signature as in the woodblock print. Both paintings were send to an exhibition in 1936 in Boston USA according to the labels.

I found one Mona K. Gill, born 28 oct. 1908, married 1933/37 Wilfred Westington, living in Orillia, Ontario, Canada and died (a mother) 7 april 1945. She was the fourth generation descending from immigrants Richard Gill and Ann Brook(e) who married 1825 in Yorkshire and left the Dales for Canada.It was stated she was a "J.A. Ayers in 1933 in Orillia" but I haven't a clue what that means. 

Information added 24 & 27 september in the comments by reader Archimandrill:
Mona K. Gill from Marblehead who married in the same year as the exhibition Mr. Edward S. Underwood mentioned as the sender on the labels of the painting is a probably the likely candidate. Cousin to the above Mona maybe ?

And further he found this painting, signed and dated Mona Underwood, 1945. 

In the Miami News from 2 april 1947: "Mona Underwood portrait painter of Boston and her mother Mrs. John Gill are welcomed as new residents at a welcoming tea party at 3610 Palmetto Ave. in Coconut Grove, Miami (a real nice area close to Key Biscane) by Mrs. Louise Batchelder. Mrs Underwood planning an exhibition next year".
Thank you again Archimandrill.

All pictures borrowed freely from the www. for friendly, educational, intellectual  non commercial use

Narcissus Update

Reader Archimandrill who recently helped to identify Charlotte Rollius as a German printmaker today send me  an interesting suggestion relating to the Narcissus/Adonis/Adam linocut print shown in September 10th posting.

He suggests there's possibly another mythical figur that could very well fit the young man in the print: the faun in the poem by Stephane Mallarmé (1842-1898): L'apres midi d'un faune. 

 Dancer Rudolf Nijinski inspired french Art Deco illustrator George Barbier (1882-1932) 

This poem inspired french composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918) writing music. And the music inspired director Sergei Diagilev (1872-1929) producing a ballet in 1912 with his historic company "les Ballets Russes" (1909-1918) touring succesfully all Western theaters and concert halls. 

The stage designer Leon Bakst (1865-1924) created decors and costumes, Michel Fokine (1880-1942), the godfather of modern ballet, was the choreographer. 

Stage design for the Faun ballet by Leon Bakst 1912

Vaslav Nijinski (1889-1950) danced the faun (untill he stopped dancing suddenly in 1917) as did later Rudolf Nurejev (1938-1993) 

Nijinski as the faun (by Leon Bakst)  

Nurejev as the faun.

An interesting and very sharp suggestion Archimandrill, thank you very much! 

Eva Roemer (continued)

Eva Roemer 

(1889-1977)

German painter and woodblock printer 

Great grand-daughter of Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

This morning reader Cheryl Moldon from Canada sends pictures of 2 prints by German printmaker Eva Roemer (previous posting here*) that I'ld like to share with you. She's recently bought them in beautiful Vancouver. They've obviously stayed together for 80 years. I'm quite sure these elegant prints are revealed to the world for the first time. 

She, and I, would very much like to know when Eva Roemer was in America and if she might have visited Canada. As shown in the previous post new facts and revelations are often just a matter of time. This is a good opportunity showing and adding to previous postings (use the search options or the labels) on this artist pictures of maybe her finest prints I've found recently. 

And what about this photo by early photographer Charles Zoller (1856-1934) who besides immortalised Charlie Chaplin made this photo that has great resemblance with this print by Eva Roemer. I wonder if she was inspired by the photo.

(Zollers blue photo reblogged-and cropped-from "the Blue Latern" Blog).
Two Eva Roemer prints, the lone pine on the hill and the blue lake with gulls are for sale on Ebay: just search Eva Römer. 

Charlotte Rollins = Charlotte Rollius

This is a follow up from posting on sept. 6th 2012.

Charlotte Rollius

(around 1885 – mentioned in 1944/45)

German printmaker, 

and the

Exhibition of Contemporary German Graphic Art

Chicago (USA)- januari 1913

Thanks to reader Archimandrill both identity and nationality of this supposedly British printmaker today is set right.  The enigmatic Charlotte Rollins who existed probably for 90 years is in fact Charlotte Rollius. The confusion and her obscuring are probably caused by Malcolm Salaman in 1929 in the Studio production "The Art of the Woodcut". Either by him or by negligence of the editor/corrector. Salaman’s expertise has great reputation but he is also reputed for his sloppiness.  

Martin Erich Philipp, "in der Grafische Austellung " 1912-1913
etching probably showing the Chicago Exhibition.

16 years before Charlotte Rollius stood in the light of critics and experts on both sides of the ocean. With four of her, at the time highly praised for daring colors, woodblock prints she was selected for the Exhibition of Contemporary German Graphic Art in the Art Institute of Chicago January 2d to January 19th 1913.

Max Liebermann: badende Junge (cat.nr. 190)

The New York Times of December 1th 1912 (note: Titanic sank in April) started the information to the public in a double paged illustrated article.

Carl Thiemann (3 works): Amaryllis, cat.nr. 297

This exhibition showed only the best of the German graphic artists and the catalogue summing up no less than 370 works of art by 90 artist on display and was organized by the New York branch of the Berlin Photographical Company renowned for its editions of high quality art work reproductions 1880-1920.

Lovis Corinth (4 works): Mother and Child, cat.nr.35

In Germany Dr. Otto Michael in Berlin is mentioned but I failed to find anything on this man yet. Maybe it was his collection or he worked for a Berlin Museum. In America the exhibition was organized and revised by Martin Birnbaum (1878-1970), scolar, critic, art dealer and the director of the BPC in New-York 1910-1916.

Max Pechstein (2 works) Somali Dancers, cat.nr.227 

Later, in the 1930’s, a selection of 36 reproductions probably made by this company was distributed for educational display in Chicago schools. Among them works by, Whistler and van Gogh but also by Charlotte Rollius ("for style and distinction") and to my surprise the Sunflowers woodblock print by Else Schmiedeberg-Blume as: "gay example of woodblock, for the lower grades". This print was not in the 1913 exhibition.

Else Schmiedeberg: gay Sunflowers

The exhibition comprises a selection of both established and renowned artists (“Giants” the catalogue states) like Max Liebermann (13 works), Emil Orlik (6 works), Max Klinger (15), Käthe Kolwitz (18), Franz Marc (3), Kandinsky (1), Emil Pottner (20 works, cat.nr. 241) Meta Cohn (2 ) and Walter Klemm (5)

Franz Marc (cat.nr. 6)

But also rookies like Martin Erich Philipp with his 1908 woodblocks no. D5 and D6 and 3 early etchings (cat 231-235). They nevertheless made his fame overseas and explaining why many of his (and others) prints often surfacing in America.

Martin Erich Philipp (cat. 231, 232 and 235)

Without a doubt there was a commercial aspect involved, prints sold or ordered. Probably through mediation from Birnbaum himself.

Emil Orlik (6 works)

Portrait of Ferdinand Hodler, cat.nr. 222

Charlotte may be the daughter of Julius Rollius and Mathilde Charlotte Elise Palm. Their daughter Elisabeth Maria Louise Rollius (born 1884) in 1909 marries into the established Berlin family Betke. As I experienced many of these German lady printmakers (and other artists) were from well to do families partly because University scientific studies weren't accessible for women in those days. 

Heine Rath (7 works cat.nrs 249-255): Pont Royal. 

There's still a lot to be investigated about Charlotte Rollius. First accounts are her studying with Emil Orlik around 1906-08, the last says she was probably still alive in 1944/45. 

Kandinsky Composition IV 1911 (cat.nr. 121) 

Anno 2012 it would be possible to reconstruct the entire exhibition digitally, an endeavour that would certainly be great fun. It would be a great book and time capsule too. But today I will limit myself to a selection interesting for readers of the Linosaurus. 

Max Slevogt (10 works) Nymph and Faun (cat.nr. 278)

I've found some very nice artist too, some famous some obscured but very interesting like etcher Erna Frank (1881-1931) represented with 4 etchings (cat.nrs 50-53, not found) In her days her work was compared to Whistler.

Erna Frank: Charlottenburg Ufer (Berlin), not in the 1913 exh.

Sadly the 4 prints shown by Charlotte Rollius I couldn't find, but I'm confident one day they will surface: (exh.nrs 258 -261, Geraniums, Landscape, Primula and Apples, Still Life).

Walter Klemm (5 works) "Pelican"

The chosen examples are just a fraction of the 370 artworks displayed in 1913 and used here only to illustrate this posting on Charlotte Rollius.

You can find the 1913 Chicago Exhibition catalogue 

here*

Narcissus (or is it Adam ?)

Would I like to know who created this woodcut print 50 years ago in 1962. It is most probably Dutch or German in origin (but I can't be sure) and I believe it has a classic and maybe slightly homo erotic aesthetic power. Even as a hetero-sexual I very much appreciate the beauty of it. I had a hunch about the printmaker but the initials donot fit. There's a warm brownish glow (layer) of color in the torso and right leg and center surrounding ribbon like structures.

I'm quite sure it is showing Narcissus, son of the rivergod Kephissos and the nymph Liriope,  after Ovid's  (43 bc -17 ad) Metamorphoses. The painting above is by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). Narcissus is mostly depicted solo because he's first and for all very much in love with himself.

But it could also be a biblical Adam (fig tree and leafs) or, more appropriate, Adonis,  the mortal son of King Cinyras of Cyprus and his daughter Myrrha. Adonis was the lover of Aphrodite (= Venus) and secretly of Apollo (hence the gay connection), also after Ovids Metamorphoses. But he is mostly depicted with his equally beautiful mistress Venus/Aphrodite (painting left by Annibale Caracci 1650-1609)

And what about a portrait of Johnny Weismuller (1904-1984) as Tarzan (or young Lord Greystoke) by Edgar Rice Burrough's (1875-1950) ? Who often is depicted with his muse: Jane Porter (Maureen O'Sullivan 1911-1998). But I don't think so.

And we could decide it's just a handsome unknown classic god-like (or godly) male specimen in his prime, posing or resting in the woods by an unknown printmaker like the semi-god in the vintage photo of an unknown Adonis by an unknown photographer. 

The initials I read:  M.F. (or maybe M.Y.)  Although I really like it, this print is maybe more in place in an other collection then it is in mine, which has a focus on impressionist flower bouquets and colorfull parrots by early German modern printmakers. It's professionally framed in a classic frame (33 x 43 cm) and the prints is 22 x 30 cm. Just contact me if you have something in my field to trade and like it. But it has to be something as nice as this. Or maybe if you have an idea who the printmaker is.

--------------

I was so impressed by Charles' fast comment and knowledge I cannot withhold his remark about the "Cocteau fluid line" in this print. Because the post is still so fresh and to show how to-the-point he is, I add one of Cocteau's lesser explicit drawings to illustrate. It's Apollo and dated 1963. Jean Cocteau (1889-died one day after Edith Piaf (1915-1963), French poet, novelist, dramatist, playwright and filmmaker, bisexual, friend of Picasso and Edith Piaf. 

Charlotte Rollins: an enigma

This posting is updated sept. 13th with important new facts: here*

Charlotte Rollins

(born probably around 1880 and last mentioned in 1933)

(probably) British printmaker, 

a student of Emil Orlik in Berlin.

I was aware for some time of the existence of these two woodblock prints in the collections of one of the finest printdealers in America: Ed Ogul of Paramour Fine Arts (see here*) (a paramour: a significant other to whom you are not related by marriage)

But since these prints aren't meant for my collection, I decided it to be a good idea sharing them with you and try to discover maybe something more about this printmaker. And at the same time showing all prints by her presently known together in this posting. 

Also because as it happens there's another print by her for sale (Ebay) at this moment. But it is priced so considerably above my means and budget I can't  imagine my "best offer" will be interesting at all to the seller. It is a combination of a woodblock print and handcoloring. I'm curious to learn about the given date and location: 1920, Berlin. But a rare print it definitely is. 

It was very annoying to conclude there's almost nothing about Charlotte Rollins to be discovered at all. What we do know is she was in the teaching department of the Kunstgewerbe Museum (Arts and Crafts Museum) in Berlin, working with and probably a student of Emil Orlik (1870-1932) around 1905-1908*(see below). She is mentioned in the notes of the Reichskammer für Bildende Künste untill 1933. She is not mentioned in the memberships archives of the Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen. Many of her contemporary colleagues, she must have met and known, are.

The buildings of the Kunst und Gewerbemuseum in Berlin (build 1880) were confiscated from 1933, around the last signs of life of Rollins. It was to  become the headquarters of the Nazis secret police, the Gestapo. The Art teaching Department in 1924 fused into the new Art Akademie Berlin and the buildings were slowly abandoned, the artists the last to go leaving their studio's in the rooftop floors. The buildings were destroyed in the conquering of Berlin in 1945 and finally demolished in the mid 1950's.

To my surprise the great Malcolm Salaman showed this copy of a print by Charlotte in his 1927 "the Art of the Woodcut" but forgets to mention her or the print completely in the text. Although he's honouring her by showing the print in full color. The book is a must for every print collector and reprinted (cheaply) in 2010. Together with the Studio/ Salaman's 1930 "the new woodcut" they show the world of modern woodblock printing 1910-1930. (This copy, carefully removed but nevertheless ripped from the book, is also available in Ebay, but you'ld do better and cheaper buying the complete book)

And finally here's the famous print by Emil Orlik and Charlotte Rollins that is signed also by her. I've found two dates for this print: 1905 and 1908* (see above). It's called "Still-life with fruits, pheasant and flowers". It's beautiful, complicated and elaborate. The postitioning of a piece of exotic leopardskin motive cloth (gown or dress) is an extraordinairy and modernistic find and greatly improves the compositions depth and  balance and is adding  a mysterious and oriental atmosphere. The year Rollins disappears from the records is the year of  Orliks death, 1932, and the year the buildings she may have once worked in confiscated and cleared. What did she do in the odd 25 years between 1905 /08 and 1933 ? Were did she come from ? 

I can't begin to understand why she hasn't left any other traces in history but I'm confident they will surface one day.