Agnes Susanne Scheurmann

Agnes Susanne Scheurmann (born August 15, 1881 in Großenhain as Agnes Susanne Schwedler ; † January 14, 1974 in St. Magdalena near Linz ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Agnes Susanne Scheurmann, 1903, private property

Life

Agnes Susanne Scheurmann was born on December 10, 1881 in Großenhain in Saxony and grew up in a middle-class family. Nothing is known about her parents, childhood and youth, any artistic career or education.

In July 1900 the young woman met the then unknown writer and painter Erich Scheurmann on a hike in Waldeck in North Hesse . He had studied at the Munich Art Academy . After Scheurmann had received a permanent position as an art teacher at the German State Educational Home Schloss Gaienhofen , the couple moved to Horn in the summer of 1904 and got married on December 14 of the same year in Constance .

Along with his friend, the painter Bruno Goldschmitt , and the writers Ludwig Finckh and Ernst Bacmeister, Erich Scheurmann is one of the first artists to settle on the Höri and Untersee . They made a conscious decision to live a simple life in the remote countryside. Due to her always precarious financial circumstances, Erich Scheurmann worked as a painter and writer in addition to his teaching position. Susanne Scheurmann also began drawing in the rural seclusion and making small-format watercolors and gouaches . The marriage was overshadowed by the early death of their three children, who were born between 1905 and 1913, but who died in infancy.

In order to distract themselves from these strokes of fate and, more than ever, filled with the longing for an alienated life in harmony with nature, the couple planned a trip to Western Samoa , which Susanne Scheurmann was unable to take due to health problems. Her husband therefore left alone on April 7, 1914. He lived in Samoa for a year, but had to break off his stay due to the beginning of the First World War and was only able to return to Horn in 1918. In order to earn money, Scheurmann gave lectures about his Samoa trip and traveled with his wife as a puppeteer across the country. Also his novel The Papalagi , published in 1920 . The speeches of the South Sea chief Taivii from Tiavea , in which he criticized the lifestyle of Western civilization, did not improve their situation. There was also an increasing alienation between the spouses. In 1930 Susanne Scheurmann separated from her husband, and on January 23, 1931 the divorce took place. While Erich Scheurmann settled in Überlingen , Susanne and her new partner, the engineer Friedl Weiler, moved to St. Magdalena in Linz . Here they led a life close to nature and were active as active opponents of nuclear power as early as 1960 . Susanne Scheurmann died on January 14, 1974 in Linz.

Art historical appreciation

Susanne Scheurmann was probably an autodidact as an artist and, as far as is known, hardly ever appeared in public with her work. Exceptions are the six silhouettes , which she as a master for Zoltàn Nagy book The Legend of the laughing man created, built in 1922 and the publisher Oskar Wöhrle appeared in Konstanz. There is another silhouette in the collection of the Kunstverein Konstanz showing happily fluttering laundry on the line and which was probably added to the collection before 1920.

Scheurmann's earliest surviving works are delicate drawings in sketchbooks that have been created since 1903 on her hikes and travels through Saxony , Thuringia , the Fulda-Werra-Bergland in Hesse , the Hegau , the Lake Constance area and Switzerland . Her interest in castle and church ruins , old mills and chapels , mountain landscapes and valleys, which she reproduces from an elevated point of view, is striking . Staffage figures enliven these romantic drawings and watercolors . It is not known whether Scheurmann traveled alone or in company.

After moving to the Höri, she created gouaches and paper cuttings, seldom larger than A4 size . It can be assumed that her husband, who worked as an art teacher, encouraged her to do so, and perhaps also taught her. What is striking is the similarity of some atmospheric depictions of landscapes in both works.

A few meticulously executed preliminary drawings on tracing paper have been preserved, along with color information, which suggests that the artist planned some of her works precisely in advance. These preliminary drawings were created for leaves with a fairytale content, such as The Winter King , The Princess of the Muschelburg or Junker Heuschreck and Jungfer Libelle, and were perhaps intended as illustrations for a picture book. In addition, Scheurmann created plant and figure studies and repeatedly depictions of lonely girls and young women waiting. In a few drawings, she portrayed her children who died young. In July 1931 she started a new sketchbook, which she titled Second Life after the divorce from her husband . It contains u. a. a landscape sketch entitled Obermühl an der Donau and then breaks off. It seems as if Susanne Scheurmann stopped painting afterwards.

Oeuvre (selection)

• Gundholzen? Untersee, 1904, watercolor, 22.7 × 30.6 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• oT (kissing couple next to a birch on the lake shore), 1905, watercolor, 29.4 × 22.5 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• oT (wedding carriage), 1906, watercolor, 21 × 20.9 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• oT (Winter scene with a bare tree and bird) 1907, watercolor, 29.9 × 22 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• oT (girl in blue dress), 1907, watercolor, 30.4 × 23.2 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• Zurich, 1907, watercolor, 30.4 × 22.5 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• oT (birch trees in the moonlight), 1908, watercolor, 30.4 × 23 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• oT (little winter cottage with a window view of old lady), 1911, watercolor, 30.6 × 23.1 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• The Princess of the Muschelburg, 1912, watercolor, 25.4 × 23 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• oT (bare tree before sunrise with mountain landscape), undated, watercolor, 25.3 × 35.6 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• oT (Princess sitting on the back with a black cat), undated, watercolor, 30.4 × 23.1 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• Untitled (linen on a line), undated, shear cut, 25 × 22.5 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• oT (pair of skaters), undated, silhouette, 25.7 × 30.2 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• Untitled (three birds on branches), undated, silhouette, 25.3 × 17.5 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• See im Mondschein, no year, watercolor, 31.5 × 23.6 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.
• Junker Heuschreck and Jungfer Libelle on the way to the May Dance, undated, watercolor, 33.6 × 24.5 cm, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz.

Exhibitions / reception

Nothing is known about Agnes Scheurmann's exhibitions, nor is their contemporary impact unclear. It can be assumed that she was influenced by her first husband (Erich Scheurmann), but did not appear seriously as an artist for his sake and due to the financial situation.

At the time, Agnes Scheurmann's oeuvre is only being rediscovered with great difficulty. Little is known about the versatile artist.

Between May 9 and August 30, 2020, works by Agnes Susanne Scheurmann are on display as part of the exhibition Beruf: Künstlerin! Ten German painters can be seen on Lake Constance . The Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie presents the Konstanz artist together with other artists from southern Germany.

Travel / excursions

Scheurmann's travels listed can be reconstructed using her sketchbooks. For the respective trips, sketches were made to varying degrees.

• 1903: Hesse
• 1903, in July: Fürstenstein Castle (Albungen) The Fulda-Werra-Bergland (in East and North Hesse) Wellingerode, Hahnstein ruins (today Thuringia), Bilstein (Berg in Hesse), Andreas Chapel on the Werra, Arnstein Castle, Werleshausen and medieval Ludwigstein Castle
• 1903, September 23: Grossenhain / Saxony, Kupferberg, Wildenhain, Saxon Switzerland
• 1904: Hohenklingen Castle (Stein am Rhein), Hohenkrähen, Reichenau, Horn, Constance, Berlingen
• 1904 in March: Lake Starnberg (Bavaria)
• 1904, June 8th: Reichenau on Lake Constance
• 1905, September: Horn
• 1906: Horn, Haidenhaus, Schaffhausen, Hohentwiel
• 1911: Horn
• 1912: Reichenau
• 1931, July 11: ("Second Life", after the divorce from her husband): Obermühl an der Donau (Upper Austria)

Quote

Susanne Scheurmann recorded her travels in numerous sketchbooks. In 1903 she wrote next to a watercolor from Höllenthal in Hessen, modifying the first stanza of the Weserlied from 1835:

"Here I have
sat many a lovely time in the moonlight, looking
down into Höllenthal,
forgetting myself and the world
, 'Oh, valleys far, o heights' -
Oh, beautiful green forest!"

- Agnes Susanne Scheurmann

estate

The artist's estate, which consists of numerous sketchbooks and studies, has been in the possession of the Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz since 2018, as a gift from the grandson of her future partner. It is still to be recorded and processed in terms of art history.

Literature / references

• Dissertation Jessica Rottschäfer on Erich Scheurmann
• Agnes Susanne Scheurmann's estate in the Wessenberg Gallery

Web links

• Profession: artist! Ten German female painters at Lake Constance, May 9th to August 30th, 2020. Website of the city of Konstanz accessed on March 24th, 2020

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Profession: Artist! Ten German painters on Lake Constance. May 9 - August 30, 2020, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz; Exhibition leaflet , accessed on May 24, 2020