Louis Lejeune

Louis Ignaz Paul Lejeune (born February 10, 1877 in Berlin , † March 2, 1954 in Niederlungwitz ) was a German painter .

Painter Louis Lejeune

Street sign in Niederlungwitz

The grave in the cemetery in Niederlungwitz

Life

Louis Lejeune was born on Wilhelmsplatz in Berlin-Charlottenburg . His mother Therese, b. Tomiček was a singer, his father Jean Paul was an actor. Louis Lejeune came from a Huguenot family who immigrated to Prussia in 1685 . He attended the humanistic Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium in Berlin-Charlottenburg up to the prima. At the age of 17, he moved to the Berlin Art Academy in 1894 , where Anton von Werner was director at the time .

After the completion of the character class for character under Lovis Corinth he was 1,897 students of master class for landscape painting by Eugen Bracht until this 1901 a professor at the Dresden Academy accepted. Around 1904 he worked as a teacher in one of the painting classes at the Academic School for Fine Arts (Akademie Fehr) in Berlin, Nollendorfplatz 6, founded in 1890 .

From 1900 to 1943 he took part in all important art exhibitions in Berlin, Dresden (1902 International Art Exhibition ), Munich , Düsseldorf and the Venice Biennale, mostly with large-format landscape paintings . His pictures were also shown by art associations and art dealers, including in Chemnitz, Leipzig and Prague. Lejeune also became a member of the Berlin Lodge.

On November 27, 1909, Louis Lejeune married Eva Bieler, the youngest daughter of a landowner, in Oliva (West Prussia). He moved into an apartment on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. They had three daughters: Emilie Therese Eva (* 1911), Anne-Louise (* 1912) and Eva (* 1923).

From 1915 to 1918 he was a soldier in the First World War , from 1916 onwards in Romania . On November 22nd, 1943, he lost his studio and apartment in a bomb attack in Berlin NW, Schleswiger Ufer 6. Until September 1944 he lived with relatives in Karlshöhe near Neidenburg ( East Prussia ), after which he was relocated to Niederlungwitz near Glauchau . Most recently he lived there at Mühlenstrasse 11b. In 1946 he was able to get an exhibition in the castle museum for the first time in the new place of activity Glauchau. Louis Lejeune died on March 2, 1954 in Niederlungwitz.

The community honored him posthumously in 1999 with "Louis-Lejeune-Straße" and a memorial plaque in Niederlungwitz in the associated new development area. His grave can be found in the local cemetery. In 2014, the museum and art collection of Hinterglauchau Castle commemorated the work of Louis Lejeune in a special exhibition as part of the “exhibit of the month”. In 2019 a picture of him was on view in the three-month exhibition Stadt — Land — Fluss at the Museum of the Havelländische Malerkolonie in Schwielowsee , which juxtaposed works by painters from the Havelländische Malerkolonie and the Berlin Artists' Association.

Create

From 1897 to 1901 he was a master student with Eugen Bracht. He completed his first studies at the Lietzensee . During this time he took part in art exhibitions with large-format pictures. In this context he received a silver medal. Also in his time were master class students. a. Eugen Reich-Münsterberg (1866–1942) and Carl Hessmert (1869–1928).

At the end of 1900 he founded the “Märkischer Künstlerbund” with Augusthabenbach , Fritz Geyer , Carl Kayser-Eichberg , Felix Krause , Hans Pigulla , Theodor Schinkel and Paul Halke. Bracht's call to Dresden was followed not only by Louis Lejeune but also by Augusthabenhagen (1865–1938), Hans Licht , Otto Altenkirch , Phillip Braumüller (1870–1935), Bruno Marquardt (1878–1916), Robert Meißvogel (born 1876), Alfred Oesteritz ( 1876–1904), Ernst Kolbe and Hans Hartig .

Around 1913 his pictures were shown in the gallery Eduard Schulte as part of exhibitions of the Märkischer Künstlerbund (May 1913). The city of Berlin often distinguished him with purchases. The Dessau Museum also made purchases. In 1914/1915 he received a large order from the Berlin community of Berlin-Schöneberg to keep five buildings that had to be demolished due to the new construction of the town hall for posterity. The old office building at Kaiser-Wilhelmsplatz 3 , the old village church with parsonage in Berlin-Schöneberg (both pictures hang in the foyer of the town hall), the old mill until 1888 in Berlin-Schöneberg , the old poor house still exist today in the Schöneberg town hall in Berlin until 1910 in Berlin-Schöneberg and the second school behind the office building . In 1929 he exhibited in the Berlin Art Exhibition (also known as the Berlin Art Salon). In the reviews, the artists were referred to as "Berlin landscapers".

The Prussian National Gallery bought some of his works . The work Before Spring Comes was loaned to the German Embassy in Ankara in 1934 . After it was considered lost for a long time, it was found in the basement of the embassy and has since been in the possession of the National Gallery again. Another picture of Gray Winter Mood was loaned to the German Embassy in Dublin . This picture is still considered lost.

Until 1943 he painted many motifs from Berlin and the surrounding area and the Mark Brandenburg . He made many trips, each of which he brought home with pictures and studies. The following travel destinations are known: Elbe Sandstone Mountains, East and West Prussia, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Romania as a soldier, Holstein, Upper and Lower Silesia, Galicia, France, Paris, Prague, Bohemia, Hanover, Harz and Thuringia, East Friesland and Tyrol. His painting and study trips were often combined with visits from relatives. He found his own style of painting at an early age and refused to be classified as "-ism". In addition to landscapes, his work also includes portraits and still lifes .

A close friendship connected him with the sculptor Arthur Lewin-Funcke . In 1917 he made a bronze bust of Eva Lejeune. With him he worked as a teacher in the “study studio for painting and sculpture” (also called “Lewin-Funcke-Schule”). From 1944 until his death in 1954 he painted numerous motifs from Niederlungwitz, Glauchau and the surrounding area, the Thuringian Forest and, in the summers from 1949 to 1953, from Westensee in Schleswig-Holstein .

Works (selection)

• Portrait of his mother 1896
• Self-portrait 1933
• Sparkling sunshine in the Berlin Tiergarten
• Pasture path
• Heaven and earth (Niederlungwitz)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christoph Becker, Annette Lagler, Institute for Foreign Relations: Venice Biennale: the German contribution 1895–1995. Cantz 1995, p. 112.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Zwickau district archive : Nielu II 175 (own handwritten notes from August 27, 1947)
3. ↑ Exhibition in the Museum of the Havelländische Malerkolonie on www.european-news-agency.de ; accessed on February 11, 2020
4. ^ Barbara Maennig: Landscapes of the Berlin master student Johannes Hänsch (1875–1945). A path to German landscape painting in the field of tension between academic teaching and artistic approaches of the modern age , dissertation, Institute for Art Studies and Aesthetics Berlin, Berlin 2003, p. 42, footnote 92
5. ↑ Dissertation Barbara Maennig, p. 306.
6. ↑ Dissertation Barbara Maennig, p. 81.
7. ↑ Dissertation Barbara Maennig, p. 104.
8. ^ Letter from the National Gallery to Louis Lejeune dated June 14, 1950 and SMB press release.
9. ↑ Kreisarchiv Zwickau: Nielu II 175 (own handwritten notes from August 27, 1947) and tradition in the family
10. ^ Eva Lejeune, 1917 , private website; accessed on February 11, 2020.

literature

• Berlin and the Berliners. People. Things. Manners. Wave your hand. J. Bielefelds, Berlin 1905, p. 99.
• Paul Friedrich: Louis Lejeune. In: German World. Monthly booklets of the Volkbund for Germanness abroad. Volume 7, Berlin 1930, pp. 253-255.

Web links

Commons : Louis Lejeune  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Works by Louis Lejeune on artnet.de
• 60th year of death of landscape painter Louis Lejeune , website of the city of Glauchau