Hans Unger (artist)
Hans (Carl Friedrich Johannes) Unger (born August 26, 1872 in Bautzen , † August 13, 1936 in Dresden ) was a German painter .
Artistic influences, subject
Unger was a portraitist and landscape painter. His reputation comes from his paintings, which depict "beautiful women dreaming of Arcadia". In fact, it was always the same woman who was portrayed: his wife, his muse. Later his daughter Maja would share her mother's privileged position. The background of his “Arcadian women” was often a pastoral landscape with tall cypress trees, a garden or a scene by the sea. Unger is seen as a representative of Dresden Art Nouveau, whose members also included Sascha Schneider , Selmar Werner and Oskar Zwintscher .
In his work he was influenced by several important artists of the 19th century, among them were: Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (Beauty as Religion), Gustave Moreau , Joséphin Péladan (the androgynous type), Fernand Khnopff (Sphinx-like women, although Unger renounced the lascivious eroticism of Khnopff), William Strang (a British engraver whom Unger met in Dresden in 1895 and later visited in London) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti . Other important influences were Edward Burne-Jones , Arnold Böcklin (especially his landscapes) and Max Klinger .
Early years
Hans Unger was born in Bautzen into a family of the lower middle class. His father quickly recognized his son's artistic talents, but since he did not believe that painting would become a flourishing profession for young Hans, he sent him to business school. This was not crowned with success; In 1887, Hans Unger accepted an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in his hometown. From 1888 to 1893 he was a student in the painter's hall of the Royal Dresden Court Theater . From 1893 to 1895 he studied at the Dresden Academy , where Friedrich Preller the Younger and Hermann Prell were his teachers. In 1894 Unger spent the summer on the island of Bornholm , where he painted a number of watercolors. In 1896 he designed a poster for the Dresden organ building company Estey , which made him internationally known and started his career.
Early career
In 1897 his painting The Muse was bought by the Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister in Dresden. From October 1897 to March 1898 he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, where Tony Robert-Fleury and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre were his teachers. Another impetus for his career was an order in 1899 to design the scenic curtain for the newly built Dresden Central Theater ; the building was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden by the Allies in February 1945. In 1899 Unger took part in the German Art Exhibition in Dresden, where he had his own hall, decorated with purple walls and a black wooden wreath. Among the exhibited works were a self-portrait in a sweater and parting , a landscape.
Hans Unger became a member of the German Association of Artists , founded in 1903 ; his name appeared for the first time in the DKB membership directory from 1906. He traveled to the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, Italy and Egypt, where he painted watercolors and pastels. Unger has been a passionate traveler to the south throughout his life, and the bold colors in his work reflect this. Evidence of this can be found in the book Travel Pictures from the South .
In 1905 Unger designed a mosaic for the tower of the Ernemann travel camera factory on Schandauer Strasse in Dresden, a goddess of light. In 1898 and 1910 Unger designed cover illustrations for issues of the magazine Jugend . He also illustrated issues of Pan magazine .
Climax
Around 1910 Unger's style changed noticeably. His strokes became bolder, his colors lost their intensity, and his work became increasingly monotonous in terms of motifs. The fantastically beautiful female figure, who was fascinating and fresh at the turn of the century, became a cliché. Her face was hard and without expression. But in his portraits and landscapes Unger remained as powerful as he was never before.
In 1912 the newly built city museum opened in his hometown of Bautzen and Unger celebrated with its own hall. He was at the height of his fame and was called "Dresden's last painter prince" in the press. The outbreak of World War I in November 1914 forced many young artists to join the army and fight at the front. Unger was spared this fate because of his prominence.
In 1917 Unger took part in the exhibition of the Dresden Art Cooperative . He designed the cover of the catalog and presented six paintings, including Salome and Reclining Girl , and six drawings. In 1918 the Dresden art exhibition presented Unger with eleven paintings and ten drawings, evidence of its popularity and reputation in the artistic community. His poster for the concerts of his friend, the composer and orchestra director Jean Louis Nicodé , earned him a prize in England for the “Best German Poster”.
A lost world
In 1918 Germany lost the war and the monarchy. The young artists, returning from the front lines, were disappointed and wanted change, even further removed from impressionism and the copying of reality as they had done in the years before the world war. Unger's world of idealized women in gentle landscapes was overtaken by the zeitgeist. His work has been pushed into the background. Nevertheless, he was still one of the richest artists in Dresden and continued his travels to Italy, Dalmatia, Spain, Portugal and Africa. King Fuad I of Egypt was one of his patrons. Unger's visits to Egypt in 1927 led to an exhibition at the Baumbach Gallery in Dresden.
In 1933 the Saxon Art Association organized an exhibition on the occasion of Unger's 60th birthday.
Meanwhile, his health was deteriorating. What later turned out to be kidney disease was treated too late, and Hans Unger died on August 9, 1936 in his house in Loschwitz , a residential district of Dresden popular with artists . He was buried in the Loschwitz cemetery , where his grave is still there.
Renewed interest
The growing interest in Art Nouveau art in the 1960s brought Unger back to attention. In 1987 the city museum in Bautzen organized a commemorative exhibition for Unger's 125th birthday. In 1997 a retrospective exhibition on Unger took place in the city museum in Freital. The Kunsthalle Bielefeld presented in 2013 in an exhibition entitled Beauty and Mystery. German Symbolism 1870–1920 several of his works, together with artists who influenced him, such as Franz von Stuck , Max Klinger and Arnold Böcklin .
Private life
Unger married his wife Marie Antonia in 1899. She became his muse, his model and the main subject of his works. In 1902 Unger designed his villa in Loschwitz , including the interior. However, this fell victim to a renovation in the early 1970s. The villa on Kügelgenstraße 6 still exists and offers a view of the Elbe and, further away, of Dresden city center. In 1903 his only child, his daughter Maja, was born. Her godfather was Sascha Schneider , a lifelong friend of Unger. After Maja's death in 1973, Unger's estate was sold and distributed.
gallery
Female study head (1896)
Woman's head, en face (1897)
The withering (1902)
Sun
Mother and child (around 1909)
Gust of wind (1916)
Summer (around 1920)
Awakening (1926)
.jpg)
.jpg)
literature
- A. Dehmer, M. Giebe, K. Krüger: "The Muse" by Hans Unger in the Klingersaal: picture and frame in a new light. In: Dresdener Kunstblätter. 4, 2010, pp. 239-244
- Rolf Günther: Hans Unger. Life and work with the list of prints. Neumeister Art Auctioneers, Dresden 1997, published on the occasion of the Hans-Unger-Memorial-Exhibition in the Stadtmuseum Freital from September 7th to October 26th, 1997
- Hans-Günther Hartmann: Hans Unger. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1989, ISBN 3-364-00165-0
- Jutta Hülsewig-Johnen: beauty and mystery. German symbolism The other modern. Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-86678-810-7
- John Knittel: Hans Unger. Special exhibition Sächsischer Kunstverein Dresden, January 25th – mid-March 1933 Dresden - Brühlsche Terrasse. Saxon Art Association 1933
- Henner Menz: Hans Unger. Travel pictures from the south. [Exhibition catalog] Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden , 1955
- Eva Schmidt: Hans Unger in the catalog of the painting collection of the Bautzen City Museum. 1954, pp. 117-118.
- Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. Sixth volume (supplements HZ) , EA Seemann, Leipzig 1999 (study edition). ISBN 3-363-00730-2 , p. 457
Contemporary information on Hans Unger can be found in the art magazine German Art and Decoration .
There is no complete survey of Unger's works. Some paintings are only known from photos, made and collected by Unger himself. Some of the paintings are unknown where their current whereabouts are. The best source is the book by Rolf Günther.
Web links
- Hans Unger in the Stadtwiki Dresden
Individual references and sources
- ^ List of members of the exhibition catalog of the 3rd German Artists Association Exhibition, Weimar 1906. p. 58, accessed on May 21, 2016
- ↑ Unger, Hans , in The Androom Archives
- ↑ Beauty and Mystery German Symbolism
- ^ Richard Stiller: painter Hans Unger - Loschwitz. in: German Art and Decoration vol. 30 (1912), pp. 80-90.
- ^ German art and decoration , illustr. Monthly booklets for modern painting, sculpture, architecture, home art etc. artistic women work, Stuttgart, Darmstadt, ISSN 2195-6308
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Unger, Hans |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Unger, Carl Friedrich Johannes |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 26, 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bautzen |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 13, 1936 |
| Place of death | Dresden |