Lisa Caraway

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Lisa Kümmel (born April 22, 1897 in Wiesbaden ; † November 27, 1944 there ; documented first name Elisabeth Gertrud ) was a Wiesbaden painter and craftsman . She was the most important reference person for Alexej von Jawlensky during his Wiesbaden years from 1927.

Life

Lisa Kümmel was the daughter of the Wiesbaden carpenter and glazier Karl Gerhard Kümmel, “formerly Kimmel and his wife Elisabeth born. Sopp. “After the elementary school years she attended a lyceum , where she passed the Abitur in 1915 .

From 1916 to 1918, Kümmel attended the Wiesbaden School of Applied Arts . Various works for advertising, fashion and carnival decorations have survived from this time.

In October 1918, Kümmel first enrolled at the Reimann School in Berlin-Schöneberg and became a student of the painter and graphic artist Paul Scheurich . In 1919 she switched to the Berlin School of Applied Arts , where she completed the subjects of nude , architecture and fashion drawing , fabric samples , wallpaper designs , sculpture and goldsmithing with an "excellent leaving certificate".

From 1921 to 1922, Kümmel became an assistant in the “Costumes and Fashion” department of the Berlin School of Applied Arts with the fashion designer Otto Ludwig Haas-Heye, and under him evidently developed a clear pedagogical ability to teach others successfully. In July 1922, Kümmel moved to Vienna, where she gave lessons as a ceramist , enamel and silk painter at the Wiener Werkstätte in the design department.

In 1923, Kümmel stayed in Rome for a few months to study painting. In 1924 she accepted the position of manager of a knitting factory in Frankfurt-Niederrad, only to return to Wiesbaden after a year. In her hometown, she took on a variety of assignments as a freelance craftsperson. She designed u. a. Costumes for the Wiesbaden theater . She developed interior fittings for private households . She also designed furniture and also worked in advertising .

Life with and for Jawlensky

Kümmel's relationship with Jawlensky

In his memoirs, Jawlensky wrote: “In 1927 I met Lisa Kümmel, an artist with whom I have been very friends since then and who has helped me to put my work in order and who also understands my art very well from the very first work to my last and loves them very much. ”Along with Hanna Bekker vom Rath , Hedwig Brugmann and Mela Escherich, she is one of the so-called. "Emergency helpers" of the artist. How Kümmel wanted her relationship to Jawlensky to be understood, she described Emil Nolde and his wife in 1938 : “I am his friend in the best sense of the word, and I have known him for 12 years, do all his written business, now also his personal work, look after his pictures, make everything in order, glue, wax, varnish, etc. And since I still work as an interior designer, I was only able to write so late. ”As early as 1927, Jawlensky showed the first signs of chronic polyarthritis , which in his last years of his life led to his complete paralysis. Jawlensky was soon to have to rely permanently on Kümmel's help.

Assistance from Altripp

In her practical work, which Kümmel did for Jawlensky, she received support from the Wiesbaden painter Alo Altripp from 1934 , who, with the exception of trips, spent one afternoon with Jawlensky every week until 1940. All three artists belonged to the Free Art Association of Wiesbaden founded by Otto Ritschl . Altripp described the cooperation and a .: "I helped out and Miss Kümmel was happy when there was someone else who could work with painter's hands." One day, while he was painting the new frames for still lifes, Altripp observed how Kümmel signed and dated Jawlensky's pictures . When asked about her actions by Altripp, “she smiles and says, I can write like him, I can write like him at all.” In connection with questions of authenticity with Jawlensky, it is interesting to learn that Kümmel “even learned to imitate his painting style. "

Travel companion, secretary and nurse

When Jawlensky was no longer able to travel alone from 1935, he was accompanied by Kümmel. So z. B. in October 1935, the last time he was in Switzerland. One learns about the trip and its condition from a letter from Lily Klee dated October 30, 1935 to Nina Kandinsky (1893–1980): "Alexej von Jawlensky [...] was with his nurse and friend Miss Kümmel [...] ] Been in Basel for 14 days and [...] lay in bed for 14 days. The poor man has become a seriously ill old man. He can barely move [...] His hands are completely crippled. ”From 1936, Jawlensky, as he was seldom able to write, used Lisa Kümmel's hand to put his memoirs on paper. These were only revised decades later by Clemens Weiler and published in 1970. Jawlensky had been wheelchair bound since 1937 and only rarely had direct contact with the outside world. More than ever he was dependent on Caraway's help. Supported by her and his wife Helene, he traveled to Munich in August in order to be able to visit the exhibition "Degenerate Art" in a wheelchair, accompanied by the two women and his old companion Adolf Erbslöh .

A year later, in April 1938, Kümmel reported on Jawlensky's condition to his friend Alexander Kanoldt : “Mr. Jawlensky instructed me to write to you because it is quite impossible for him to write himself [...] He has not been able to work for a year more [...] He held the brush with 2 hands and moved it with his shoulders, because the elbow joints have been stiff for a long time. Now he will probably no longer be able to work. "

Without Kümmel's help, Jawlensky's enlightening letter to the nabi and painter monk Jan Verkade would not have been written in June 1938 , which is now considered to be his most important personal account of his artistic career.

In November 1938, Kümmel feared the worst and informed Ada Nolde : “Our good Jawl. is not going well. I fear that he will not be with us much longer either [...] his body is slowly falling apart [...] I do what I can, come to him when I can to give him other thoughts, to distract him from the heavy thoughts. "

Regarding Kümmel's care for Jawlensky, Altripp confirmed: “This woman was really there every day. [...] This Kümmel gave himself up completely [...] was a single sacrifice for this man, especially for his work, his work. ”In 1938, Kümmel gave up her own artistic activity in order to devote herself entirely to caring for Jawlensky to be able to. She earned her living in a nursery. Like other women in art , she set aside her artistic ambitions in favor of her protégé. After Jawlensky's death in 1941, she took care of his estate . She was buried in a bombing raid in November 1944 and was taken to a hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries on November 27, 1944. On the Wiesbaden Südfriedhof today is still its honorary grave .

Lisa Kümmel and Japonism

Jawlensky generously rewarded Kümmel for her friendship services with his own pictures and other objects from his art collection. In his catalog raisonné, 123 paintings and 73 drawings and watercolors with the provenance of Lisa Kümmel are named. In addition to these 196 Jawlensky works, there is also “a tub full of meditations” that Lisa Kümmel's nephew, Karl-Heinz Kümmel, burned.

But Jawlensky's most important gift in terms of art history is part of his collection of Japanese woodblock prints that he bequeathed to her around 1935 with a dedication . Kümmel framed them and adorned with them, works by Jawlensky, her apartment in Wiesbaden at Rüdesheimerstraße 22. Without this collection, the Japonism in Jawlensky's and also in Marianne von Werefkin's oeuvre would sometimes be difficult to determine. For a long time, nothing was known about the artist couple's sympathy for Japanese art. While Kümmel's Japanese treasures were still slumbering in the family's possession, the first Japanese woodcut was discovered in the Werefkin's estate and, unidentified, was presented to the public for the first time in 1983 in an exhibition at the Wiesbaden Museum. It was to be assumed that it was part of a formerly larger Japanese collection of the artist couple.

About ten years later, Kümmel's Japanese woodcuts from Jawlensky's former property appeared in the Wiesbaden art trade and initially came into private ownership. There were almost 100 sheets. In 1992 this Japan collection was shown by the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse in the knight's hall of the castle in Steinau an der Straße and in the Leopold Hoesch Museum in Düren . Today Jawensky's Japanese woodcut collection is in the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation of the Lenbachhaus in Munich .

Jawlensky's dedications to Lisa Kümmel

Jawlensky donated countless works to Lisa Kümmel. His catalog raisonné shows over 50 paintings with dedications. They testify to the painter's deep bond with this woman. Just a few examples are given here:

  • "Lisa, I am 70 years old, but my heart is young and loves you dearly."
  • "You are, Lisok, so dear and always help me and I am deeply grateful to you."
  • "With a kiss on the foot I give you Lisa this head." (With "head" is meant the painting Meditation: Heisse Liebe .)
  • “This head is as hot as my love for you.” (With “head” the painting Meditation: In deep admiration is meant.) The catalog raisonné hides some very personal dedications.

literature

  • Helga Lukowsky: Jawlensky's evening sun, the painter and the artist Lisa Kümmel. Königstein / Taunus 2000, ISBN 3-89741-050-8
  • Brigitte Salmen (ed.): "... these tender, spirited fantasies ...", the painters of the "Blue Rider" and Japan. Exhibition catalog. Murnau Castle Museum 2011 ISBN 978-3-932276-39-2
  • Bernd Fäthke: Lisa Kümmel. In: Bernd Fäthke: Alexej Jawlensky. Heads etched and painted. The Wiesbaden years. Draheim, Wiesbaden 2012 ISBN 978-3-00-037815-7

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helga Lukowsky, Jawlenskys Abendsonne, The Painter and the Artist Lisa Kümmel, Königstein / Taunus 2000, p. 45
  2. ^ Helga Lukowsky, Jawlenskys Abendsonne, The Painter and the Artist Lisa Kümmel, Königstein / Taunus 2000, p. 49
  3. ^ Helga Lukowsky, Jawlenskys Abendsonne, The painter and the artist Lisa Kümmel, Königstein / Taunus 2000, p. 56
  4. ↑ Helga Lukowsky, Jawlenskys Abendsonne, The painter and the artist Lisa Kümmel, Königstein / Taunus 2000, p. 59 f
  5. ↑ Alexej Jawlensky, Memorabilia, in: Clemens Weiler (ed.), Alexej Jawlensky, Heads-Face-Meditations, Hanau 1970, p. 120
  6. ↑ Alexander Hildebrand, Alexej Jawlensky in Wiesbaden Reflexes on Life and Work (1921–1941), in exh. Cat .: Jawlensky's Japanese woodcut collection. A fairytale discovery, edition of the Administration of State Palaces and Gardens, Bad Homburg vdH, No. 2, 1992, p. 56 ff
  7. ↑ Exhib. Cat .: Alexej Jawlensky 1864–1941, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 1983, p. 118 f
  8. ↑ Bernd Fäthke, Alexej Jawlensky, heads etched and painted, Die Wiesbadener Jahre, Galerie Draheim, Wiesbaden 2012, p. 28 ff, fig. 30–32, 41, 47, 51, 59
  9. ↑ Bernd Fäthke, Alo Altripp - Of colors, forms and non-colors, Draheim Gallery, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 12
  10. ↑ Alo Altripp, Memories of Jawlensky, tape protocol of Martina Conrad, Jawlensky on her 125th birthday, SWR II, Maschinenschrift, Mainz / Wiesbaden 1989, p. 14 f
  11. ↑ Helga Lukowsky, Jawlenskys Abendsonne, The painter and the artist Lisa Kümmel, Königstein / Taunus 2000, p. 106
  12. ↑ Josef Helfenstein,> The most precious and personal gifts <The exchange of images between Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky and Klee, in exh. Cat .: Die Blaue Vier, Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee in der Neue Welt, Kunstmuseum Bern 1997, p. 100 f
  13. ↑ Galka Scheyer to Alexej Jawlensky, May 13, 1936, copy in the transcription by Lette Valeska (1885–1985), Murnau Castle Museum archive
  14. ↑ Clemens Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky, Heads-Face-Meditations, Hanau 1970, pp. 95 ff
  15. ↑ Kümmel had contact with Erbslöh until 1943, see: Helga Lukowsky, Jawlenskys Abendsonne, Der Maler und die Künstlerin Lisa Kümmel, Königstein / Taunus 2000, p. 153
  16. ^ Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky (eds.), Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné of the oil-paintings, Vol. 3, Munich 1993, p. 30
  17. ↑ Bernd Fäthke, Jawlensky and his companions in a new light, Munich 2004, p. 214
  18. ↑ Alexej Jawlensky, To P. Willibrord Verkade, The Artwork, 2nd vol., Issue ½, 1948, p. 49 f
  19. ↑ Exhib. Cat .: Alexej Jawlensky 1864–1941, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 1983, p. 119
  20. ↑ Bernd Fäthke, Jawlensky and his companions in a new light, Munich 2004, p. 200
  21. ^ Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky (eds.), Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné of the oil-paintings, Vol. 3, Munich 1993, p. 474
  22. ^ Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky (eds.), Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné Volume Four, The Watercolors and Drawings 1890–1938, Vol. 4, Munich 1998, p. 497
  23. ↑ See: Helga Lukowsky, Jawlenskys Abendsonne, The painter and the artist Lisa Kümmel, Königstein / Taunus 2000, p. 152
  24. ↑ Bernd Fäthke, Jawlenskys Vorbilder (1880–1921), in exh. Cat .: Jawlensky's Japanese woodcut collection. A fairytale discovery, edition by the Administration of State Palaces and Gardens, Bad Homburg vdH, No. 2, 1992, p. 27, Fig. 14
  25. ↑ Bernd Fäthke, Von Werefkins and Jawlensky's soft spot for Japanese art, in exh. Cat .: "... the tender, spirited fantasies ...", The painters of the "Blauer Reiter" and Japan, Murnau Castle Museum 2011, p. 115, fig. 23
  26. ↑ Bernd Fäthke, Von Werefkins and Jawlensky's soft spot for Japanese art, in exh. Cat .: "... the tender, spirited fantasies ...", The painters of the "Blue Rider" and Japan, Murnau Castle Museum 2011, p. 103 ff
  27. ↑ Bernd Fäthke, Alexej Jawlensky, drawing-graphic documents, exh. Cat .: Museum Wiesbaden 1983, p. 36, fig. 39, cat.no.69
  28. ↑ Exhib. Cat .: Jawlensky's Japanese woodcut collection. A fairytale discovery, edition by the Administration of State Palaces and Gardens, Bad Homburg vdH, No. 2, 1992
  29. ↑ mh., Fascination of Far Eastern Treasures, Jawlensky's Japanese woodcuts in the Museum Schloß Steinau an der Straße, Wiesbadener Tagblatt, June 25, 1992
  30. ↑ hm, Japanese woodcut collection by Alexej Jawlensky in the Steinauer Schloß, “Rare exhibits”, Kinzigtal-Nachrichten, July 25, 1992
  31. ↑ Martin Hildebrand, The collection of Japanese woodcuts by the painter Alexej Jawlensky, Wiesbadener Leben, 8/92, p. 6 f
  32. ↑ Andreas Herkens, Greetings from Japan, Jawlensky's woodcut collection on display in Düren, Aachener Volkszeitung, December 12, 1992
  33. ↑ andro, woodcuts were a source of inspiration, Jawlensky collection in the Paper Museum, Dueren-Zeitung, December 15, 1992
  34. ^ Mar, Heirs love black, Die Welt, January 9, 1993
  35. ^ Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky (eds.), Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné of the oil-paintings, Vol. 2, Munich 1992, No. 1421
  36. ↑ Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky (eds.), Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné of the oil-paintings, Vol. 3, Munich 1993, No. 1515
  37. ↑ Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky (eds.), Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné of the oil-paintings, Vol. 3, Munich 1993, No. 1813
  38. ↑ Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky (eds.), Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné of the oil-paintings, Vol. 3, Munich 1993, No. 1813
  39. ^ Helga Lukowsky, Jawlenskys Abendsonne, The Painter and the Artist Lisa Kümmel, Königstein / Taunus 2000, p. 76
personal data
SURNAME Caraway, Lisa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caraway, Gertrud Elisabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and craftswoman
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesbaden
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 1944
Place of death Wiesbaden