Heinrich Cohrs

Christoph Heinrich Cohrs , also Hermann Cohrs , (born December 10, 1850 in Töpingen , † May 11, 1914 in Beedenbostel ) was a German landscape painter .

Self-portrait (around 1910/1912)

biography

Heinrich Cohrs was born as the son of the landlord Johann Peter Cohrs and his wife Anna Maria née Kohlmeyer from Suroide in the municipality of Töpingen near Munster (Örtze). He was the third of five children in the family. In 1853 the family moved to the hamlet of Reiningen , near Wietzendorf . At the age of 13, Cohrs worked as a herding boy for a farmer in Sultingen , a village that had to give way to the Munster military training area in 1937 . From 1864 to 1866 he was employed in Suroide as a so-called "small servant " (young servant). Until 1870 he worked for a farmer in summer and as a shepherd tending the Heidschnucken in winter . In April 1870 he began an apprenticeship as a painter and varnisher in Soltau , but was dismissed in December of the same year due to a lack of work. Painting in different places followed suit until he on May 1, 1872 for military service in the 4th Company of the Infantry - regiment was called the 73rd As a simple soldier, he was paid 17 pfennigs a day. After the end of the Franco-Prussian War , Cohrs served here from June 1872 as a soldier in the occupation army in north-eastern France , first in Metz and then in Verdun . The unit was moved back to Hanover in 1873 . In September 1874 Cohrs was released from military service.

Professional background

Heinrich Cohrs (around 1890)

After his discharge from military service and various posts as a painter, varnisher and decorative painter , Cohrs founded a painting workshop in Hermannsburg in 1876 . Since this work did not satisfy him, however, he handed the business over to his painter journeyman Petersen and applied in writing to the Düsseldorf Art Academy . On January 2, 1884, he began his first semester of studies at the painting academy, with Professor Braunstein. During the semester break, Cohrs wanted to get to know the Dutch school . He went on educational trips, including to Antwerp , Brussels and Munich . In Munich he applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in early 1885 . But he refused an initial admission to the preparatory class. In the summer of 1885 he applied again to the academy and passed the eight-day entrance examination. Cohrs joined Professor Gabriel von Hackl's drawing class , where he met the painter Michael Zeno Diemer, among others . In the summer of 1891 he returned to Hermannsburg and worked here as a painter . In particular, he drew portraits, local views and landscapes of his homeland, only rarely in oil due to lack of money, mostly as watercolor or pencil. In 1892 Cohrs met the founders and editors of the monthly Lower Saxony magazine , August Freudenthal and his brother Friedrich . In Volume 11 of Volume II, a small report appeared for the first time in 1896/97 with a drawing by him and later more of his drawings. In the last years of his life he made a living mainly from the sale of self-painted postcards and postcards reproduced in-house .

Work

Lady with Still Life

Around 400 pictures and at least 156 different postcard motifs have survived. From 1900 he presented his work for the first time under his own direction at Verlag Hermann Cohrs. The name Hermann should probably be an homage to his place of residence Hermannsburg. Major works from the estate were destroyed in a fire in 1956.

Exhibitions

After Heinrich Cohr's death in 1915, his brother Wilhelm presented heather landscapes, portraits and postcards from the estate for the first time in an empty shop in Soltau. From March 1920 the work was presented in a permanent exhibition in Gerdau , a small community in the Uelzen district . With the protection of Theodor Benecke, director of the Harburg / Helms-Museum , 150 pictures by Cohrs were exhibited in May / June 1921 in the museum's hall of honor . From August 30th to September 16th, paintings by Cohrs were presented to the public in the Hall of Honor of the Hanover Army in the Bomann Museum in Celle .

Works in museums and collections

• The Altona Museum for Art and Cultural History in Hamburg has cards from Cohrs.
• The Bomann Museum in Celle has several pictures by the artist.

literature

• Arnold Linke: A painter of the Lüneburg Heath - Heinrich Cohrs Hermannsburg . Missionary Action Hermannsburg
• Walter Ottermann: Immenkorf 1989 . Heimatbund Hermannsburg eV

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Cohrs  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Heinrich Cohrs in the catalog of the German National Library