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.

Marjolein Terwindt, printmaker

Marjolein Terwindt-Wetterau
(1957-)

Dutch contemporary painter and printmaker.

Blogreaders may be as surprised as I was discovering this working and living very near to my home artist. Marjolein Terwindt studied in the Minerva Art Academy in the nearby university city of Groningen. I've treated and shown artists who followed this renowned and longtime,  esthablished in 1798,  Academy in the Linosaurus before. 

Reduction printmaking techniques are a more modern approach to printmaking. Generally speaking it is fitting less into my personal field of interest and taste. The result, to me, is often too realistic and sometimes even too good to be true where I favour a more impressionist approach. But stumbling over a picture of these wonderful 3 chinese jars in such exquisite colors making the diference and exception, and change my mind, and investigate the artist printmaker involved. Thus, to my excitement and delight, finding some more gems which I share today.

And let's be honest, these examples of her cutting and printing skills I've found on her website (below) are very convincing and stunningly beautiful  and I honestly cannot think of any reasonable reason I haven't discovered them before. 

Here is the link to the website of this artist if you'ld like to investigate the art of Marjolein further: http://marjoleinterwindtwetterauw.exto.nl/. 

PS: I think I'll invite myself and pay her a visit soon and maybe see these marvels  in person and real life. Of which I shall do account of course. 

Meinert Volkers: "L'escale Rue Drevet"

Meinert Volkers 

(1927-2000)

Dutch painter and drawer.

Educated at the Vrije Academie ("Free Academy") in the Haque Netherlands, this artist today is mainly remembered as a painter of landscapes, abstracts, still-life and figures. He lived and worked in Paris for some time and there aren't many examples of his art around.

A recent local market find, is this washed drawing in pen and black ink obviously of a location in Paris in the 1950's. It is actually Rue Drevet (crossing Rue des Trois Frères) and the steps (l'escale) towards the Cathedrale Sacre Coeur in Montmartre.

I tried finding some more details about this spot in Paris and came up with the following results. Some old postcards showing the place in glorious and prosperous days. Remember this is the heart of the old Paris were at the time  many famous artists, like Vincent and Pablo, worked and lived.

Today however the situation is deplorable, the proud building on the left with the striped sunshades owned by a J. Jacquemard around 1900 after a recent fire is in ruins. Graffity helping to create an atmosphere of desolation, decay and crisis. Before the fire, recently this pictoresque place was subject to some very nice contemporary artists:

Paintings by colorfull artists like Jacques Ruiz (left), and Bruno Emil Laurent (1928-) (right), and an etching (below) by artist Albert Decaris (1901-1988) who is btw reviewed extensively here* at Neil's "Adventures in the Printtrade".

In honour to the artist I just stumbled upon, here's a choice (below) of some of the very few other works I've found.

Visit the colorfull Websites and the Montmartre of painters Bruno Emil Laurent and Jacques Ruiz here:

B.E. Laurent: http://bel.over-blog.com/article-13510970.html

J. Ruiz: http://ruizjacques.rmc.fr/r16297/Tableaux-de-PARIS/