Jean van Daalen (photographer)

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Jean van Daalen (around 1890)

Jean van Daalen (born January 14, 1864 in Leeuwarden , Province of Friesland , † May 25, 1949 in Aalen ) was a Württemberg photographer , painter and cinema operator of Dutch origin. This photographer, who has received several awards as a court photographer, had emerged as a portrait photographer and was a successful entrepreneur. He had main studios successively in Reutlingen , Heilbronn and Aalen, as well as branches in Gmünd , Nördlingen and Ulm .

Life

Back of a portrait of J. v. Daalens from Reutlingen (1866–69).

It is not known why the young Dutch photographer came to Württemberg. It could be a prospect of better success. In April 1886, Jean van Daalen opened a photographic shop in Reutlingen at Kaiserstraße 31 together with the privateer Oskar Elben. This shop existed until April 1889. After that, Jean van Daalen moved to Heilbronn . The reason for this was obviously his marriage plans, because in June of the same year 1889 he married Emilie Luise Vogt there. In Heilbronn, Jean van Daalen was the owner of a “photographic art establishment” and in the address book he called himself a “painter and photographer”. On November 8th, 1893 he was appointed "court photographer" by Franz Josef I , the emperor of Austria. Soon afterwards he received this title from King Wilhelm II of Württemberg , as well as from the two Princes of Hohenlohe : Friedrich zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst and Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen . He then knew how to use this title effectively in advertising by referring to it both on the reverse of his work and in the newspaper advertisements.

Advertisement J. v. Daalens in the "Remszeitung" on August 9, 1890.

In 1894 Jean van Daalen moved to Aalen. There he took over the studio rooms, which were originally built by the photographer C. Burghardt and then temporarily used by Wilhelm Boppel . Soon afterwards, van Daalen decided to open a branch in Gmünd . He came to an agreement on this with the Gmünder Flaschnermeister Müller, who applied for a building permit for a studio in January 1897. After repeated deliberations, the building commission issued a permit, which, however, was associated with stricter fire regulations. Then the rear building of the Marktplatz 34 building, which housed the Flaschner workshop, was raised by one floor and covered with a pent roof. A 4 x 9 m studio was built there along with ancillary rooms: waiting room, study and darkroom. The longitudinal wall of the studio on the north side and the pent roof were glazed over a large area. The cost of the construction work was ℳ 10,000 according to the cost estimate . The studio was opened on September 1st, 1897, which was already announced in an advertisement on August 9th. The studio ran well and the yields were constant over the more than 20 years of its existence. After van Daalen gave it up in 1920, it remained largely unused. Due to the fact that the building was not destroyed or demolished, it has been completely preserved in its original form to this day and is one of the very rare commercial historical testimonies of photography in Germany. At the turn of the century, van Daalen expanded his business and opened another branch - in Nördlingen; around 1913 another was added - in Ulm. It is clear that he could not be present everywhere at the same time and therefore employed photographers, whom he did fully incorporate.

Advertisement in "Remszeitung" from November 1898.

As a successful entrepreneur in the photography field, Jean van Daalen recognized the potential that the related field, moving photography, i.e. cinema, offered very early on. In 1911 he opened his first cinema in Nördlingen, the newly built »Central« cinema in Baldniger Strasse (number at the time: B 214). After the end of the First World War he bought the »Union« cinema in Aalen, which was opened in 1913 by Eberhard Wagner in a converted barn behind his restaurant ( Karlstrasse 1). He kept the name of the cinema and ran this cinema until 1936, initially parallel to his photography activities, but over time he completely switched from being a photographer to a cinema operator. After giving up the Gmünder branch in 1920, he closed the Nördlinger and Ulm branches a little later as well as the Aalener Atelier. In the mid-1930s he had the new "Union" cinema built next to the old cinema building in Aalen, which was in keeping with the times and in 1936 replaced the old building. The cinema was unlucky. It only existed for almost nine years because it was completely destroyed in an American air raid on Aalen train station on April 17, 1945. After the end of the Second World War , Jean van Daalen decided to build a new cinema building again, despite his advanced age. An even larger and more modern movie theater has now been built on the field of ruins under the leadership of the local construction company Apprich. In the middle of the construction work, however, van Daalen died at the age of 85. The splendidly equipped »Union« cinema, the construction of which his successors continued, was ceremoniously reopened eight and a half months after his death, on February 10, 1950, with the screening of the film Eroica .

power

Since a considerable part of van Daalen's work is preserved in the family archive, it is possible to assess it comprehensively. His pictures, which are characterized by high technical quality, document his photographic skills. In contrast to the earlier custom of staging the portraits in front of a theater-like backdrop, which consisted of a painted background and objects such as chairs, armchairs or sideboards, he renounced these means at an early stage and instead emphasized differentiated lighting. In his portraits it can be seen that he had an artistic talent - he always referred to himself as a painter and from the beginning not only had a trained eye, but also a talented hand, which he benefited from the masterly coloration of some of his photographs came. In addition to ordinary photographs, he also offered watercolored photographs and oil portraits that were made on the basis of the photographs.

Special works

  • Hand-colored album with all different uniforms of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Johannes Schüle: Gmünder Photographen , p. 31.
  2. ↑ a b Union, Aalen on allekinos.com.
  3. ^ Johannes Schüle: Gmünder Photographen. , P. 31 refers to the trade register of the city of Reutlingen 1885–1888, p. 62 in the Reutlingen city archive.
  4. ^ Johannes Schüle: Gmünder Photographen. , P. 31 refers to the family register of the city of Aalen in the city archive of Aalen.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Johannes Schüle: Gmünder Photographen , p. 32.
  6. ↑ This part of his work has not yet been researched, which is why no more precise data can be provided here.

literature

  • Johannes Schüle: Gmünder Photographers. The early days of photography in Schwäbisch Gmünd , Einhorn-Verlag: Schwäbisch Gmünd 2002, ISBN 3-927654-94-9 .

Web links

Commons : Jean van Daalen  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Daalen, Jean van
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wuerttemberg photographer, painter and cinema operator of Dutch origin
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Leeuwarden
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1949
Place of death Bask