Erna von Dobschütz

Self-portrait of Erna von Dobschütz (around 1915)

The young painter Erna von Dobschütz with her family (ca.1903)

Erna von Dobschütz in March 1957

Erna Pauline Klara von Dobschütz (born March 6, 1876 in Cosel , Upper Silesia , † June 25, 1963 in Görlitz ) was a portrait painter .

family

Erna von Dobschütz came from an old Silesian noble family (see also: Dobschütz ) and was the only daughter of the royal Prussian major Otto von Dobschütz (1833-1897) and his second wife Auguste von Spankeren (1845-1922). Erna von Dobschütz remained unmarried.

Life

After her father's retirement in 1888, Erna von Dobschütz lived with her parents in Görlitz, Krölstraße 45. After her father's death in August 1897, Erna is 21 years old, she remained alone with her at her mother's request. She is said to have been forbidden from marrying a doctor because he was not “befitting”.

Her first, naturalistic drawings have come down to us as early as 1890, when Dobschütz is only 14 years old. As far as is known, she had her first private lessons at least in May / June 1896 with Professors Wilhelm Claudius (1854–1942), the great-great-nephew of the poet Matthias Claudius , and Robert Sterl in Dresden , which she continued there from February 1, 1900 at the latest. Both impressionists were among the artists in the Goppeln artists' colony . There she also took part in an exhibition for the first time, which was to be followed by quite a few in her further life.

From 1904 to 1908 she was a student in the ladies' studio of the famous portrait painter Professor Franz Skarbina in Berlin .

Dobschütz then lived again in Görlitz from 1909 to 1952 in her parents' apartment, Kahle 6 (today: Johannes-Wüsten-Straße 6). In 1909 she took over the studio of the portrait painter Ella von Prittwitz in the neighboring house, Kahle 7 . Here she gave lessons in painting and drawing until 1929 and organized exhibitions of her own pictures.

Contribution to the opening exhibition of the "Galerie der Moderne" in the Görlitzer Kaisertrutz (2015)

As a convinced Oberschlesierin, she went to the referendum in Cosel, where she was born in Upper Silesia, as a matter of course, to vote on March 20, 1921 for Upper Silesia to remain with Germany.

After years of creativity, but a very modest life, Dobschütz retired in 1952 to the Görlitzer Luisenstift . From December 3, 1962 until her death, she was finally housed in the nursing home of the Central Hospital in Görlitz, where she died on June 25, 1963 - lonely and alone, far from her family living in West Germany - " after long, patiently endured suffering ". According to her own wishes, her urn was then transferred to Kassel and buried there at the Wahlershausen cemetery in the grave of her older brother Paul von Dobschütz (1874–1944).

A legacy of around 200 portraits and still lifes in oil paintings , pastels , watercolors and charcoal drawings was taken over by the Görlitz Municipal Art Collections (in the baroque building at Neißstraße 30 ).

Exhibitions

In 1900 Dobschütz ("Görlitzer Zeitung": "..., a very talented atelier student of Professor Claudius ..." ) participated in Dresden with a portrait of the Dresden major general z. D. Christian Amynt love at an exhibition in the E. Richter gallery . The "Görlitzer Zeitung" wrote: "We are sincerely pleased with the compatriot's hard work."

In 1904 she took part with five works in an exhibition of the Lausitz Art Association from November 15 in the Lausitz Memorial Hall in Görlitz (pastel picture " Young girl student ", three red chalk studies " Old man ", " Young Dutch woman ", " Lohndiener Lorenz " from Görlitz, Still life “ Pheasant in front of pines ”).

After 1908, back in Görlitz, she held her first own art exhibition. The “Görlitzer Zeitung” wrote about this : “… In her portraits, above all, she shows a very good talent for this subject. The portraits are characterized by resemblance and liveliness, and it is especially the field of pastel painting in which Miss von Dobschütz has had some very good successes. ... " .

Only after her death in February 1964 was she given the honor of a large, comprehensive exhibition of her works in the " Grafisches Kabinett " in Görlitz. The then head of the “Städtische Kunstsammlungen Görlitz”, Ernst-Heinz Lemper , wrote in the “Landskron-Echo” (February 21, 1964) in his contribution “A Görlitz painter to the memory” among other things: “..., an excellent overview of that Human face of that time in a remarkable realistic painting, which one notices at first glance that the sitters are “hit”. …. " .

Even today, individual works are shown as those of "an important Görlitz painter" in museums and exhibitions there.

• 2014, May - November: "Adel in Schlesien" in Görlitzer Kaisertrutz , two paintings and their postcards from Cosel for the referendum (1921) as a contribution to the collective exhibition
• 2015, from January 16: "Galerie der Moderne" in Görlitzer Kaisertrutz, her self-portrait (oil painting), a male portrait (pastel) and a fruit still life (oil painting)

Foundation, endowment

The “Erna von Dobschütz Foundation” has existed in Görlitz since 2011. The sponsor was a Dobschütz relative living in Kassel. The purpose of the foundation is to preserve and research your work. The interest income will initially be used for comprehensive photographic documentation of the estate, which will form the basis for further processing and later publications on the painter's work.

literature

• Ernst-Heinz Lemper: Erna von Dobschütz 'portraits and still lifes. For the exhibition in the Graphisches Kabinett Museum Neißstraße 30 . In: “ Die Union ”, daily newspaper of the Christian Democratic Union, February 13, 1964
• Ines Anders: An “ambitious, promising force” dedicated himself to the face. For the 125th birthday of the portrait painter Erna von Dobschütz . In: " Sächsische Zeitung ", March 6, 2001
• Sigismund von Dobschütz: “ von Dobschütz - Stammliste of an Upper Silesian family over 500 years old ”, East German Family Researcher Archive (AOFF), Volume VIII, Page 105f, Verlag Degener & Co, Neustadt (Aisch), 1980, ISSN  0003-9470 .
• Sigismund von Dobschütz: " The Upper Silesian Sex of Dobschütz ", Archive East German Family Researchers (AOFF), Volume XII, page 320f., Verlag Degener & Co, Neustadt (Aisch), 1993, ISSN  0003-9470 .

Web links

• Biography on the website of the city of Görlitz

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The painting was donated to the Kulturhistorisches Museum Görlitz on September 2, 2014 by the family: Rare self-portrait of Erna von Dobschütz for the museum ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
2. ↑ Ines Eifler: Rare self-portrait for the Kaisertrutz , in: Sächsische Zeitung (Görlitz) of September 4, 2014
3. ↑ The painter Johannes Wüsten , who had once been her pupil when he was preparing for the entrance examination at the Dresden School of Applied Arts, wrote about the collaboration in his autobiography: “While preparing for the Dresden examination, I also fell into the hands of a painting noblewoman from Görlitz who after a short time declared that I was so untalented that I should rather become a photographer. ” Despite this negative assessment, Wüsten does not seem to have lost contact with Erna von Dobschütz, because in 1929 he finally took over her studio in what was later named after him Street.
4. ↑ Information from the Kulturhistorisches Museum Görlitz ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2014 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. 
5. ↑ Erna von Dobschütz in the new Görlitzer Magazin , in: Wochenkurier from May 8, 2013
6. ↑ More attention for Erna von Dobschütz , in: Wochenkurier from December 19, 2012