Alfred Hofmann-Stollberg

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Alfred Hofmann-Stollberg , actually Alfred Hofmann (born October 16, 1882 in Oberplanitz near Zwickau ; † February 25, 1962 in Dresden ), was a painter , graphic artist and art educator who lived in Stollberg in what is now the Erzgebirgskreis in Saxony and since 1929 worked in Dresden. He preferred Christmas motifs and motifs from the Ore Mountains and Vogtland in his paintings and was therefore best known as a Christmas and Ore Mountains painter. He was also a long-time member of the German Association of Artists .

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After completing elementary school, Alfred Hofmann attended the teachers' seminar in Schneeberg , where his artistic talent was recognized and promoted. The seminar was known for the excellent artistic training of the future elementary school teachers who were deployed throughout Saxony. Many of the educators trained in Schneeberg later also worked as local folk and folklore.

In 1906 Hofmann continued his training with a degree in fine arts in Dresden. After successfully completing his studies, he worked as an art teacher for higher education institutions in Richard Guhr's studio . In 1910 the Stollberg teacher training college appointed him as a teacher for art education. The teachers' seminar in Stollberg was founded in 1903 as an offshoot of the seminar in Annaberg and was converted into a nine-level German secondary school after the First World War. Alfred Hofmann's work proved to be a gain for the educational institution, whose high level he helped to shape. In addition to his work as an art teacher, he and his wife were involved as the leader of an amateur drama group consisting of seminarians and high school students, which performed primarily in West Saxony and played plays by Hans Sachs or performed Gerhart Hauptmann's thieving comedy Der Biberpelz .

Because of a nervous condition, Hofmann had to move his center of life from Stollberg to Dresden in 1929. His nineteen-year work in the city on the northern edge of the Ore Mountains is considered his main creative period as a painter and graphic artist. Many etchings , woodcuts , various decorative works as well as book and calendar illustrations were created , which he signed with his artist name Alfred Hofmann-Stollberg since 1910. He found his main motifs in folk art, local traditions and above all in the landscape of the Ore Mountains and the Vogtland in all seasons. Hofmann-Stollberg worked very often with the print shop owner and publisher Paul Keller, who published the Erzgebirge house and home calendar designed by him . In his calendars, the artist processed suggestions and impressions from the Ore Mountains and the Vogtland, such as the Erzgebirge Häusler , Altes Hammerwerk or Dr. Kastenmaa . He also created the series Erzgebirgslandschaften , which consisted of twelve original colored woodcuts, and the etching of the Vogtländischer Gasthof (1920). Through his illustrations in the works of Kurt Arnold Findeisen , for example Mutterland (1914) or the Golden Christmas Book (1936), Hofmann-Stollberg also became known outside of his immediate homeland. His plan to publish a picture book illustrated by him about the life of Karl Stülpner could no longer be realized because of his nervous problems.

From 1929 to 1944 Hofmann-Stollberg worked at a secondary school in Dresden-Plauen , where he created considerable works, especially watercolors with motifs from the landscape of the Plauen reason . He went blind in 1951 and was unable to continue his artistic work until his death in 1962.

A partial estate consisting of watercolors, printing templates and sketchbooks has been on permanent loan to the Oelsnitz Mining Museum since 2019 .

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Björn Josten: Permanent loan is a stroke of luck for landscape art collection. Free press , Stollberger Zeitung, March 6, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann-Stollberg, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hofmann, Alfred (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist, the Erzgebirge and Christmas painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberplanitz near Zwickau
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1962
Place of death Dresden