Else Wenz-Viëtor

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Else Wenz-Viëtor (born April 30, 1882 in Sorau , Nieder-Lausitz, † May 29, 1973 in Icking ) was a German children's book illustrator. In the 1920s and 1930s she was one of the best-known and most productive picture book illustrators in Germany.

Life

Else Wenz-Viëtor was born under her maiden name Viëtor on April 30, 1882 in Sorau (Niederlausitz) and grew up with her grandparents in Freiburg im Breisgau .

She inherited her love for plants and animals from her grandfather, later her favorite motifs. She learned to draw to a large extent as an autodidact; from 1901 she attended the arts and crafts school in Munich and joined an association of women artists. In the Schwabing artists' quarter she portrayed well-known artists. During this time she married the painter Carl Rehm . The marriage ended in divorce, and in 1913 she married the architect Paul Wenz .

From 1933 she headed the Ickingen National Socialist Women's Association .

Her daughter Hedda Obermaier-Wenz received her mother's graphic training and drew in an almost identical style. She created illustrations for around 60 children's books and was a member of the Werdenfelser Künstler e. V. works as a painter in Werdenfelser Land .

On March 31, 2019, an episode of the NDR's Lieb & Teuer program was broadcast, moderated by Janin Ullmann and filmed in Reinbek Castle . In it, a children's book by Wenz-Viëtor with the title From the small old town was discussed with the antiquarian Daniel Schramm , which is a playbook with stick figures.

Artistic creation

In 1903 she illustrated her first of over 150 books, Das Buch vom Kinde . From 1909 she worked with the Alfred Hahn publishing house and also created pictures for Auerbach's German children's calendar. She also worked as a freelancer for the Deutsche Werkstätten für Kunst und Handwerk, for which she designed interiors, wallpapers, glasses, etc. In 1914 she showed a tea room at the Cologne Werkbund exhibition . The very productive collaboration between the artist and the Stalling Verlag in Oldenburg began in 1920. There alone, 30 books illustrated by her appeared with a total circulation of over a million.

Else Wenz-Viëtor has often been compared to her older colleague Gertrud Caspari , but she herself named the English graphic artist Arthur Rackham as a model . Following the trend of the time, she often drew plants and animals with human features in picture books. In Sonnenkinderstuben (1925) she paints a butterfly with an apron and a tit with a headscarf. The humanized representation of animals can be found, for example, in Die Schule im Walde (1931) with verses by Adolf Holst . With the teacher and children's book author Adolf Holst, she designed at least 11 other books.

As one of the first freelance illustrators, Wenz-Vietor was dependent on producing a lot and something pleasing. Today she is viewed with caution, as her pictures were also well received by the National Socialists.

Selection of their picture books

  • On the farm - A picture book to set up (1910), Jos. Scholz-Mainz-Verlag Wiesbaden, publisher number 6562
  • Nuremberg Puppet Book (1920)
  • Pig slaughtering, making sausages, Quieck-Quieck-Quieck (1925)
  • Little Häwelmann (1926)
  • Grünbart, the Moosmännchen Oldenburg: Gerhard Stalling 1928. Oldenburg: Lappan Verlag 1985
  • In the flower sky (1929)
  • The School in the Forest (1931)
  • Christmas (1932)
  • With the Easter Bunnies (1934)
  • Wedding in the corner (1934)
  • Get in my child. We travel through the year (1935)
  • The Night Child (1942)
  • Beeline's Adventure (1949)
  • St. Nikolaus in Not , Stalling Verlag, (1954)
  • The happy mouse people , Lappan Verlag , Oldenburg 1998, ISBN 3-89082-210-X

Quartets (selection)

Fairy Tale Quartet , JW Spear & Sons , company catalog 1919, No. 856

literature

  • Manfred Bergr : Else Wenz-Vietor, in: Kurt Franz among other things: Children's and youth literature. A lexicon, Mertingen, 1st Erg.-Lfg. 1996, pp. 1-13
  • Wenz-Viëtor, Else . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 5 : V-Z. Supplements: A-G . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1961, p. 112 .
  • Karin Teufl, Aschenbrenner Foundation (ed.): Fine lines - large drafts. Else Wenz Viëtor (1882–1973). Publication for the exhibition of the same name at Museum Aschenbrenner, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, from December 2, 2016 to April 23, 2017. 1st edition. Aschenbrenner Museum, Garmisch-Partenkirchen December 2016
  • Volker Ufertinger: Clarification on Paul Wenz , Münchner Merkur , December 13, 2018
  • Friederike Berger: Else Wenz-Viëtor , in: Tulga Beyerle , Klára Němečková (Eds.): Against Invisibility: Designers from the Deutsche Werkstätte Hellerau, 1898-1938 . Munich: Hirmer, 2018 ISBN 978-3-7774-3218-2 , pp. 218f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ attempted explanation . In: sueddeutsche.de . January 3, 2019, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed January 3, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Werdenfelser-kuenstler.de: Our members (accessed on May 30, 2015)
  3. ↑ Video children's book "From the small old town" on ndr.de
  4. ^ Paul Jessen: German Form in the War Year, The Exhibition Cologne 1914 . In: Deutscher Werkbund (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the German Werkbund . tape 1915 . F.Bruckmann A.-G., Munich 1915, p. 46 .
personal data
SURNAME Wenz-Viëtor, Else
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German children's book illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Sorau , Lower Lusatia
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1973
Place of death Icking