Carl Friedrich Felber, a colleague from Dachau.

Carl Friedrich Felber

(1880 Wädenswil (Sw.) -1932 Dachau)

Swiss painter and etcher.

In last posting we met artist Carl Felber. He arrived in Dachau, to stay, with his wife in 1901 some years before Carl Thiemann and Carl Olof Petersen whom with I started this series of postings. Felber before studied in the Karlsruhe “Gewerbeschule” (Arts and Crafts) and also at the renowned Academie Julian in Paris before settling in Dachau and continuing under painter-teacher Alfred Hölzel (1853-1934) and his New-Dachau School of painting.

To begin with I found this etching of Notre Dame seen from from Quay de la Tournelle (see the following postings on one of my favourite Seine/Paris views in the Linosaurus here*) that I seem to have missed completely before.  

What drew my attention to Felber, researching Carl Thiemann in Dachau, was the fierce contrast between his oil paintings, mostly of his native Lake Zürich province he frequently returned to, often depicting the seasons and the moon-lit etchings he made of the Dachau moors stretching al the way to the Alps in the South. 

Bright and gay paintings of Swiss country side and lakes and the gloomy (hound of the Baskervilles-like) twilight aquatint etchings of the Dachau moors.

The “Moosschwaige”, an idyllic dwelling in the moors and situated along the Amper river under age-old poplars was locally nicknamed “Motiv no.1” (number one motif) explaining its appearance on numerous works of art. Painters, it was said, often queued up here with parasols, easels, paint and canvases.

One painting I found by Felber of the moors (above) with it’s birches and also a proof he too travelled, like Carl Thiemann, to the Adriatic coast and the Venice lagoon recognizing the characteristic sails of the local fishing boats in the village  of Chioggia situated just South of Venice in the etching below (right).

Besides a hoard of international artists visiting the Italian Mediteranian and Adriatic coast here we also meet Thiemann and his student, the late-flowering, very neglected and definitely one of my favorite printmakers Eleonore Doelter (1855-1937) from Graz (Sw.) with one of her Chioggia fishing boats prints. 

Her interesting life story and many of her woodblock prints will be told and shown in next posting.

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

Carl Thiemann and some Dachau colleagues

To all readers:

Best Wishes for 2013

In this last posting of 2012 I'd intended writing a report of my virtual visit to Dachau (where I met Carl Olof Petersén discusssed in before posting) and of course running inevitably into printmaker Carl Thiemann (1881-1966).

Since this blog is not meant to be about world famous printmakers and other artists who already have been subject of more scholarly investigation I have been seriously in doubt whether to continue with todays posting. 

Thiemann upper, Ludwig Dill lower 

Adding something worthwhile reading (and sharing rarely seen prints) to the web that wasn’t previously there, or presenting some new context  is one of the rules and criteria I try to maintain after I've started this Blog following my personal discoveries.

Clockwise: Carl Thiemann, Ludwig Dill, Adolf Hölzel and Arthur Langhammer: Dachau moor and birches. The compositional meaning of every bend in the water and in the tree trunks has been subject of some kind of professional discussion. 

In the beginning, before Thiemann and Walter Klemm arrived in 1908 there was this trio of friends, painting and teaching in Dachau: the colorist Arthur Langhammer (1854-1901) who died young, theorist and later abstract artist  Adolf Hölzel (1853-1934) who left in 1905 and Ludwig Dill (1848-1940) who was never to leave and rediscovered the Dachau landscape. 

Thiemann and Ludwig Dill

Langhammer and Hölzel were very influenced after visiting Claude Monet (1840-1926) in Paris but it was Dill, a master of light and shadow, who came closest to Monet (poplars and haystacks) and van Gogh (cypresses and pines) concerning the series of outdoor created paintings of Dachau moor and its birches. Hölzel returning every summer to teach in his New Dachau Painting School.

Thiemann and Carl Moll (1861-1945) who worked in Vienna at the time

Reading about the art colony in Dachau and its painter-teachers and looking up their paintings I think it is nice to see and compare the things that awoke my curiosity trying to figure out how these artist and the landscape may have influenced each other and later students.

"Alte Kanalbrücke Dachauer moor", woodblock and painting by Carl Thiemann etching by Carl Felber (1880-1932). Felber, a painter etcher, shared the same teachers as Thiemann and also settled in Dachau and worked along the Mediteranian and Adriatic sea coast where teachers artists and students from Dachau and München moved to in summer. Felbers work of Dachau moors I intend showing   soon. 

Workmens houses along the canal by Carl Felbers.

There was Ferdinand Mirwald (1872-1948), an artist who also moved with his young family permanently to Dachau, arriving at the same time as Thiemann and Klemm in 1908. He was famed for his color woodblock prints although most of his work was lost and surviving prints are extremely rare. 

Left Mirwald, right Thiemann: Dachau, and Dachau moor canal.

Although the landscape around Dachau, its moors and waterways obviously had the same attraction to all painting artists todays availability and easy access of the internet of so many pictures makes it tempting to try and compare them.

 In later years the use of color changed dramatically in Thiemann's prints.

In the case of the printmaker Carl Thiemann it is astonishing to see how he was able to keep up with his painting colleagues and teachers in capturing the atmosphere of the place and its surroundings even with the limitations presented by the medium of the multi colored woodblock print. 

Carl Thiemann (1881-1966)

 Carl Johne (1887-1959)

Thiemann's birches obviously were an inspiration to Dutch printmaker Piet Rackwitz (1892-1968) whom I shall present in due time.

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

Happy Christmas 2012

Martin Erich Philipp (1887—1978), Poinsettia in Chinese vase, multi color woodblock print M55, 1936. Image size 34 x 47 cm.

Poinsettia (named after Joel Robert Poinsett (1779-1851), botanist and American Minister of Mexico (ambassadors weren’t appointed until 1896) beginning of the 19^th century who imported the plant into the US. 

And in 1804 Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), explorer and botanist, brought the plant to Europe.

Latin: Euphorbia pulcherrima, Christmas flower or  Christmas rose, Atatürk flower, Aztek: Cuitla-xochitl, Mexican: Flores de Noche Buena.

A Mexican legend says the child Pepita, too poor to buy a proper gift, instead picked a bouquet of field flowers as a gift to Jesus. Given in humility and love God rewarded it with a miracle: in the church one of the plants flowered red and green on Christmas.

Arie Zonneveld (1905-1941), Poinsettia. 

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Roberts_Poinsett

Recently I've obtained a second copy of MEPH's Poinsettias. It's on offer for swapping.