Curt Herrmann

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Curt Herrmann (born February 1, 1854 in Merseburg , † September 13, 1929 in Erlangen ) was a German painter of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism and a founding member of the Berlin Secession .

Life

Hugo Curt Herrmann was the fourth of six children of the married couple Johann Heinrich Herrmann (1813–1888), insurance director, and Carolina Rosa Luise Herrmann, b. Heberer (1826–1908), born. His younger brother was the archaeologist Paul Herrmann (1859–1941). In 1870 the family moved to Berlin. Curt Herrmann left school without a degree and entered the studio of Carl Steffeck in 1873 , with whom Max Liebermann and Hans von Marées had previously studied. Although he had mainly occupied himself with portrait painting until then and he lacked official access authorization, Herrmann wrote to the history painter Wilhelm von Lindenschmit the Elder on April 21, 1884 . J. at the academy in Munich . After he had finished his studies in 1885, he worked as a portrait painter in Munich. He had been friends with the art critic and historian Richard Muther since those years.

In 1893 Herrmann moved to Berlin and opened a drawing and painting school for women, which he ran with interruptions until 1903. Philipp Franck and Dora Hitz joined his circle of friends . In 1895 Sophie Herz (1872–1931) became his student. The couple married in 1897.

As an artist and collector, Curt Herrmann played a central role in Berlin art life around 1900. In 1898 he was a founding member and board member of the Berlin Secession and in 1903 of the German Association of Artists .

In 1897, on his honeymoon in Paris and Brussels, he met Henry van de Velde , with whom he had a lifelong friendship. This introduced him to Neo-Impressionism and its most important representatives such as Paul Signac , Henri Edmond Cross or Maximilien Luce , whose works Herrmann also collected. Van de Velde also furnished Herrmann's apartments in Berlin. During these years Herrmann was in close contact with the pioneers of a new art such as Julius Meier-Graefe , Caesar Flaischlen and Harry Graf Kessler .

Thanks to Herrmann's personal acquaintance with Paul Signac, Théo van Rysselberghe and Maurice Denis , Herrmann became an important mediator of French Neo-Impressionism in Germany. In 1902 he suggested to the gallery owner Paul Cassirer to hold one of the first exhibitions in Germany with their works. In 1906 he himself organized a special exhibition of modern French art within the exhibition of the Berlin Secession. When the Berlin Secession split in 1914, Herrmann became a member of the Free Secession and was its president from 1914–18.

After 1900, Herrmann promoted numerous younger artists such as Otto Hettner , Arthur Segal , Alexej von Jawlensky , Adolf Erbslöh or the members of the Brücke artists' association by inviting them to exhibitions and purchasing their works.

From 1919 Herrmann stayed more and more on the Upper Franconian Schlossgut Pretzfeld , which belonged to his mother-in-law, and soon turned his back on Berlin. From 1923 he was increasingly plagued by depression and had to go into lengthy treatments in Erlangen. He gave up painting in 1923.

On November 10th and 11th, 1938, the National Socialists destroyed the Pretzfeld Castle and burned a central early work, a male nude, for allegedly immoral depiction in public. Herrmann's only son, the architect Fritz Herrmann (1898–1983), was already in exile in England with his family at that time.

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Corresponding to his time, Herrmann was initially interested in Dutch painting of the 17th century, in Frans Hals and Rembrandt , whose works he copied. Until the end of the 1880s he concentrated on portrait painting, but already in Munich he began to occupy himself with the landscape and Herrmann discovered the current plein air painting for himself.

His pictures of the 1890s, painted with loose brushstrokes and in bright, bright colors, became a model for a younger generation of German artists, such as the artists of the Scholle Association . Through the experience of Neo-Impressionism, Herrmann began, alongside his friend Paul Baum, as one of the first in Germany to paint in the style of Pointillism . Still life and the urban landscape now join the landscape.

Around 1920 Herrmann increasingly painted strongly stylized flower still lifes, which in some cases even became almost abstract.

Curt Herrmann's works can mainly be seen in the Neue Galerie in Kassel. In the Upper Franconian town of Pretzfeld near Forchheim , a private museum is dedicated to him, which can be visited by appointment.

Awards

Own writings

  • The struggle for style. Problems of Modern Painting. Berlin 1911.
  • Curt Herrmann. 1854-1929. A modern painter in Berlin. Vol. 2, letters. Edited by Thomas Föhl, ed. by Rolf Bothe. Berlin 1989.

literature

  • Curt Herrmann (1854-1929). Paintings, pastels, watercolors. Cat. Exhib. City Collections Schweinfurt / Marburg University Museum for Art and Cultural History (Schweinfurter Museumschriften Vol. 103). Schweinfurt 2001, ISBN 3-927083-86-0 .
  • Thomas Föhl: Curt Herrmann. an artist's life 1854–1929. Ostfildern-Ruit 1996, ISBN 3-7757-0620-8 .
  • Curt Herrmann. 1854-1929. Directory of all works by Curt Herrmann in the possession of the State and Municipal Art Collections Kassel, Neue Galerie and Graphic Collection. Cat. Exhib. New gallery (Kassel) edit. by Claudia Tutsch. Kassel 1991
  • Curt Herrmann. 1854-1929. A modern painter in Berlin. Cat. Exhib. Berlin Museum, ed. by Rolf Bothe. Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-922912-24-9 .
  • Curt Herrmann. 1854-1929. Cat. Exhib. Municipal art collections of Kassel, edited by Erich Herzog and Walter Kramm. Kassel 1971.
  • Memorial exhibition on the occasion of the 100th birthday. Curt Herrmann. 1854-1929. Paintings, watercolors, graphics. Cat. Exhib. Charlottenburg Art Office. Berlin 1955.
  • Bernd Ehrhardt: The painter Curt Herrmann in Wulkow - a manor house and its history. District calendar Oder-Spree, pp. 35–41, Beeskow 2015.

Web links

Commons : Curt Herrmann  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ matrikel.adbk.de Matriculation book of the academy
  2. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund since it was founded in 1903 / Herrmann, Curt ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on August 24, 2015)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuenstlerbund.de
personal data
SURNAME Herrmann, Curt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Merseburg
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1929
Place of death gain