Gertraud Herzger from Harlessem

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Gertraud Herzger von Harlessem (with brother Griso) around 1927

Gertraud Herzger von Harlessem (born August 4, 1908 in Bremen ; † July 24, 1989 in Überlingen ) was an artist from Bremen and a representative of the Classical Modernism .

biography

Herzger von Harlessem was the daughter of the tobacco merchant Gryso Ludolf William von Harlessem (1870–1938) and Antonia Maria Karoline, nee. Danner (1877-1959). She had a brother.

She attended elementary school from 1915 and a grammar school in Bremen until 1928. After graduating from high school , Gertraud Herzger von Harlessem, who painted from an early age, decided to become an artist. The parents supported her wish and financed her visit to the Johannes Itten School in Berlin . In the Bauhaus - artist Johannes Itten learned Gertraud of Harlessem, dynamic and light-dark contrasts to develop in their paintings.

Nanny in Autumn , 1929

In order to evade the tight, clearly structured requirements, she moved to Giebichenstein Castle in Halle . Here she was a student of the painter Erwin Hahs from 1930 to 1932 and enjoyed the free and informal way of working. Expressive works emerged, such as the studio party . In addition, there are impressions such as Im Tiergarten or Lesendes Mädchen , gloomy, almost surreal scenes, such as Women in the Allee or Ruth . Jakob Wassermann's story Adam Urbas inspired her to write a seven-sheet series of woodcuts. Itten's influence is reflected in these traditionally hard and angular black and white woodcuts. From 1931 onwards, Harlessem's will to experiment was most evident in the woodblock prints. She knew how to combine woodcut and painting techniques and, although she was printing from one plate, achieve a subtle painterly effect.

In the zoo , 1930

In 1933 von Harlessem returned to her parents. They now lived in Dresden and had lost their fortune due to the global economic crisis of the 1920s and thus the opportunity to finance their daughter's artistic career. In 1934/35 von Harlessem worked in Böttcherstraße in Bremen. In 1940 Gertraud married Harlessem Walter Herzger , whom she had already met at Burg Giebichenstein as the head of the graphic workshop . Soon a certain competition arose between the two artists, which increasingly forced Gertraud von Harlessem to create in secret. After the birth of their daughter Sabine in 1940, it was clear to Walter Herzger that his wife would now have her job and should stop painting. However, this did not prevent Gertraud von Harlessem from becoming active as an artist, and small-format, often sketchy and unfinished works were created in secret . She preferred colored pencils, pastels and wax crayons as the smell of oil would have given her away.

During the Second World War sought Gertraud Herzger of Harlessem as Otto Dix , Erich Heckel , Max Ackermann , Helmuth Macke and Hugo Erfurt , refuge on the peninsula Höri am Bodensee . When Walter Herzger was released from captivity in 1946 , von Harlessem worked in the Bernina sewing machine factory in Steckborn, Switzerland , to enable her husband to do artistic work. Here she met the artist Grete Kindermann, wife of the sculptor Hans Kindermann , among others . When her husband received a professorship for drawing at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe in 1958, the family's financial situation eased and they moved into their house in Gaienhofen in 1963 .

From 1963 onwards she painted and drew more secretly during her daughter's regular visits to France. In 1985, after the death of her husband, another short, intense artistic creative period began for von Harlessem, which lasted until her death in 1989.

Between May 9 and August 30, 2020, works by Gertraud Herzger von Harlessem are on display as part of the exhibition Beruf: Künstlerin! Ten German painters can be seen on Lake Constance . The Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz presents the artist together with other artists from southern Germany.

  • Reading girl , around 1933

  • Female Nude II , 1932

  • Women in the avenue , around 1932

Works (selection)

  • Nanny in autumn. (Private property), 1929.
  • Studio party. (Burg Giebichenstein, University of Art and Design, Halle), around 1930/31.
  • Female Nude II (private property), around 1932.
  • Reading girl. (Private property), around 1933.
  • Women in the avenue. (Private property), 1932.

Literature, sources

  • Angela Dolgner : Gertraud Herzger from Harlessem. An artist from the environment of Johannes Itten and Erwin Hahs. Freundeskreis Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design V. in cooperation with the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum Bremen and the Hermann-Hesse-Höri-Museum Gaienhofen, Halle an der Saale 2008, ISBN 978-3-86019-067-8 .
  • Barbara Lipps-Kant: Gertraud Herzger von Harlessem 1908–1989. Reutlingen 1993.
  • Regina Contzen: Herzger von Harlessem, Gertraud, b. of Harlessem. In: Bremer Frauenmuseum (Hrsg.): Women story (s). Edition Falkenberg, Bremen 2016, ISBN 978-3-95494-095-0 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Profession: Artist! Ten German painters on Lake Constance. May 9 - August 30, 2020, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz; Exhibition leaflet , accessed on May 24, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Harlessem, Gertraud Herzger from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and representative of classical modernism
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1989
Place of death Überlingen