Adolph Meyer (painter)

Heinrich Adolph Meyer (born December 11, 1894 in Kiel , † August 19, 1988 in Gauting ) was a German painter.

Live and act

Adolph Meyer was a son of the conductor Christian Heinrich Meyer (born September 3, 1853 in Fargau ; † December 31, 1928 in Kiel) and his wife Anna Elise , née Schröder (born December 13, 1854 in Schlesen ; † January 16, 1906 in Kiel). He had ten older siblings and experienced a childhood in the cramped conditions of a family of the petty bourgeoisie.

After attending the 5th boys' primary school in Kiel, Meyer began training as a theater painter at the Stadttheater Kiel in October 1910 . His teacher for decorative painting at the Kiel Crafts School, Franz Georg Zimmermann, advised him to study. Meyer learned 1912/13 at the Hamburg School of Applied Arts with Anton Kling and Carl Otto Czeschka . Here he made drawings and designed stage sets that show the clear influences of the Viennese Art Nouveau taught by Kling and Czeschka. In autumn 1913, Meyer continued his studies at the Charlottenburg School of Applied Arts with Harold Bengen .

Meyer painted together with his friend Werner Lange from Kiel in Cesar Klein's studio . He mainly designed the dome frescoes of the Siemens & Halske administration building in Spandau and the tapestries that were used in 1914 in the design of the pavilion for the color show at the Cologne Werkbund exhibition . Meyer attended the private Moissi drama school in Berlin to accompany his studies . There he made friends with Max Reinhardt , Felix Bressart and Lothar Müthel .

During the First World War , Meyer served on the Western Front in France from 1915 to 1918 and was a draftsman for a division. Presumably because of this activity, he created many landscapes and watercolors in the meantime. He painted in various styles, but increasingly developed his own impressionist profile with suggested expressionist features. His estate includes many drawings with motifs from the Bible, mostly of crucifixions. In 1917 he portrayed himself twice realistically and expressively as a soldier.

From April 1919 Meyer worked as a stage painter at the Kiel City Theater. In August 1919 he took over the management of the painting room from Otto Reigbert . The dramaturge and writer Gerhard Ausleger (1891–1969) placed him in the Kiel Expressionist Working Group , which also included Friedrich Peter Drömmer , Werner Lange and Karl Peter Röhl . Meyer created many preliminary studies for drawings and cuts in wood and linoleum. In 1919 he painted the "Dancer" based on it. This exaggerated expressionist work is a representative painting for expressionism from Kiel.

In 1920 Meyer went to Breslau-Rosenthal with the sculptor Johanna (Hanna) Olga Berta Koschinsky (born August 21, 1884 in Breslau) . Konschinsky had attended lectures by Auguste Rodin and Aristide Maillol in Paris and inherited a farm from her father in Breslau. The father Emil Koschinsky (1845-1919) was a manufacturer and married to Hulda, née Schlawe (1854-1935). Meyer and Koschinsky lived in this house together with Felix Jacob and had their studio there. In 1920 Meyer created other expressionist paintings. He also worked as a commercial artist for the United East German Perfumery and Soap Factory, which belonged to Koschinsky's father. He also ran agriculture on the farm with no success.

Meyer and Koschinsky married on May 8, 1922. In 1825 they bought a house in Gauting, which was adjacent to the studio building and where they moved to. Meyer copied most of the time paintings from the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. These paintings were partly used as advertising material for a paint factory in Ludwigshafen. In the 1930s he created several landscape paintings. Here he chose the style of the Dachau School and was very much based on the style of his friend Leo Putz .

During the time of National Socialism, the Reich Chamber of Culture imposed a work ban on Koschinsky. The couple therefore tried to emigrate to Australia in 1938. The trip ended in Indonesia. Then they moved back to Gauting, where Koschinsky died on March 31, 1939. Meyer then married the writer Adele Johanna Rosa Kaufmann (born May 19, 1905 in Vienna , † 1984 in Minnesota). The marriage was divorced on November 2, 1964.

In the 1950s and 1960s Meyer belonged to the artist and literary group "Tukan". Up until the 1950s, he earned his living in particular with landscape and flower paintings, inspired by the impressionistic-realistic works of Leo Putz. Then he worked again as a copyist in Munich. He also made a lot of portraits on commission. Without a doubt, he created his qualitatively best works between 1916 and 1920. Due to financial problems, he had to subordinate his creativity to the preferences of his clients for a long time. Even working as a copyist did not allow creativity, as Meyer repeatedly emphasized himself.

family

On May 8, 1922 Meyer married the sculptor Johanna ( Hanna ) Olga Berta Koschinsky (born August 21, 1884 in Breslau ; † March 31, 1939 in Gauting ). Her father Emil Koschinsky (1845-1919) was a manufacturer and married to Hulda, née Schlawe (1854-1935).

In his second marriage, Meyer married the writer Adele Johanna Rosa Kaufmann (born May 19, 1905 in Vienna , † 1984 in Minnesota ) The marriage was divorced on November 2, 1964.

Both marriages remained childless.

literature

• Wolfgang Zeigerer: Meyer, Adolph . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 250-253.
• Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Adolph Meyer . In: ders .: Kiel artist. Volume 3: In the Weimar Republic and in National Socialism 1918-1945 , Heide: Boyens 2019 (special publications by the Society for Kiel City History; 88), ISBN 978-3-8042-1493-4 , pp. 131-138.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Koschinsky, Hanna . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 6 , supplements H-Z . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1962, p. 161 .