Franz Korwan
Franz Korwan (artist name), born as Sally Katzenstein, (born October 27, 1865 in Heinebach in what is now the municipality of Alheim (near Melsungen and Kassel), Hesse , Germany ; † September 4, 1942 in the internment camp of Noé (Haute-Garonne) with Toulouse , France ) was a German landscape painter and local politician on Sylt . He is counted to the Düsseldorf School of Painting .
Life
Franz Korwan (this artist name he had officially from 1924 after ministerial approval) was born under the name Sally Katzenstein on October 27, 1865 in Heinebach as the son of Baruch Katzenstein and Jenni Katzenstein (née Wolff). Franz Korwan was a Jew who later converted to the Protestant faith in 1908. His ancestors Katzenstein lived in Heinebach-Alheim for several generations. At that time, the small town had a Jewish community that had been recorded in writing since the middle of the 17th century (1861: 80 people) with a synagogue and an Israelite elementary school . Korwan studied from 1887 for two years with Eugen Dücker at the Düsseldorf Academy and came to Sylt for the first time with his painting class in 1888. He later went on study trips to Italy , spending a long time in Florence . In the 1890s he studied for two more years at the academy in Berlin as a master student of Eugen Bracht . Korwan lived alternately in Westerland , Berlin and Hamburg . He opened his studio in Westerland for affluent spa guests and salon-like tea parties of prominent visitors. Since 1890 he has sent motifs from Sylt to major exhibitions in Munich and Berlin. Korwan was heavily involved in the local politics of Sylt. Among other things, he campaigned for Westerland to receive city rights from 1905. Korwan was a member of the supervisory board of the Sylter Dampfschifffahrt-Gesellschaft, organized and administered the municipal savings bank and was twice elected councilor of the Westerland community. He was committed to stimulating tourism and designed numerous illustrations for Sylt posters, postcards and advertising leaflets. The marriage with Franziska Achenbach from Westerland (marriage in 1894, birth of daughter Erna in 1895) was divorced in 1920. In 1921 Korwan moved from Westerland to Keitum to live with his patron , the Hamburg Jew and businessman Julius Saenger, in a granny flat with a studio. After Saenger's death in 1929, Korwan lived together with his widow Elsa Saenger. In 1937 Korwan left the island of Sylt with Elsa Saenger and moved to Wiesbaden , later to Baden-Baden . In 1940 he was arrested in Baden-Baden and deported to the Gurs internment camp (northeast of the Pyrenees, southern France), and later to the Noé assembly camp (south of Toulouse), France, where he died in 1942.
Subjects
Franz Korwan worked primarily as a landscape painter. He found his motifs mainly on the coast of the North Sea island of Sylt, its dune and heathland landscapes , in maritime views and depictions of rural farms on the island, these often decorated with herds of sheep, carts of cows, etc.
He supplemented the silvery light palette that many painters at the Düsseldorf School of Painting had, with strong tones, especially in evening moods. Korwan's painting is strongly influenced by Impressionism , which is particularly evident in the depiction of the water as well as the high sky and the clouds. Recognizable persons rarely appear in his work, only a few portraits of his hand are known.
Works in collections
Most of his works, usually executed in oil on cardboard or canvas, are now in private collections. The pleasing motifs, the remarkable colors, the light of the north, the special biography , which is strongly interwoven with Sylt, determine the continuing interest and demand for Korwan's works. Korwan's works regularly find enthusiasts and collectors in the Sylt art trade and well-known auction houses in Northern Germany and Denmark .
Noteworthy works in public collections are the holdings in the art collection of the municipality of Sylt and two works in the Museum for Communication Frankfurt , including the oil painting "Postbefahrt Between Hoyer and Sylt" from 1892, which depicts the carriage of mail by ice boat , which was maintained in severe winters across the icy mudflats shows.
Continued work: Korwan restored 1908 today as museum serving Old Frisian House in Keitum, created in 1913, the Innenausmalung the Church of St. Severin (Keitum) with floral ornaments and star constellations and designed around 1902 a large-format poster for the North Sea resort of Westerland. Korwan also created postcards with views of Sylt.
Mail delivery between Hoyer and Sylt , oil on canvas, Museum for Communication Frankfurt
Sailing boats off Sylt , oil on cardboard, private collection
Postcard, Frisian interior
Postcard, Alte Friesenstube
Postcard, surf from Sylt
Sylt dunes , oil on canvas, no year, Dr. Ax Foundation (Bonn)
Beach at sunset with a view of St. Severin , Keitum, Dr. Ax Foundation (Bonn)
signature
Typically, the legible signature of the paintings , set in angularly linked letters as handwriting, is often found on the lower right or left as F Korwan or Korwan , usually without the year. The letter K appears strikingly expansive, the letters F and K are close together. He rarely signs with S Katzenstein
Traces and memory
- In the south of Westerland on Sylt there is the Franz-Korwan-Weg on the edge of the residential area.
- At Strandstraße 12 in Westerland, in front of his first studio, there is a memorial stone ( stumbling block ) for Franz Korwan. Others are in Keitum and Baden-Baden.
- For the 150th birthday of the artist, the Heimatmuseum Keitum / Sylt organized a special exhibition from May to October 2015
literature
- Dörte Ahrens, Silke Tofahrn (Red.): Franz Korwan: (1865–1942); [on the occasion of the exhibition "I leave the island with a heavy heart ..." Franz Korwan on Sylt from May 10th - October 31st 2015 in the Sylt Heimatmuseum in Keitum - Sölring Museen] Söl'ring Foriining, Keitum 2015, ISBN 978-3-925735-19-6 .
swell
- Joachim Pleines: Searching for traces - approaching Franz Korwan . Opening speech for the Franz Korwan exhibition on April 4, 1993 in the Sylter Heimatmuseum, Keitum (typescript, copy in the Sylter Heimatmuseum).
- Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer : Sylt in painting. Boyens Buchverlag, Heide 1996, ISBN 3-8042-0789-8 .
- Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: artist island Sylt. Boyens Buchverlag, Heide 2005, ISBN 3-8042-1171-2 .
- Manfred Wedemeyer : Käuze, artist, connoisseur - hardly known Sylt. Verlag Pomp & Sobkowiak, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-922693-62-8 .
- Manfred Wedemeyer: Franz Korwan - a Jewish fate on Sylt. In: Journal Schleswig-Holstein Culture History Nature. Issue 6/2000 , Husum publishing and printing company, ISSN 0937-7247 .
- Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker, Hans Vollmer: General lexicon of visual artists from antiquity to the present.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Andrea Jahn: Franz Korwan-Katzenstein and his social and political work on Sylt. In: Dörte Ahrens, Silke Tofahrn (Red.): Franz Korwan: (1865–1942). Söl'ring Foriining, Keitum 2015, pp. 65–72, v. a. P. 67f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Korwan, Franz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Katzenstein, Sally (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German landscape painter and local politician on Sylt |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 27, 1865 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Heinebach , Germany |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 4, 1942 |
| Place of death | Noé (Haute-Garonne) , France |