Painting school in Karlsruhe

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Up until the 20th century, women had a hard time finding an artistic profession. They were usually denied access to the academies. While in Russia women were able to study at the academies from 1871, in Germany this was only possible on a larger scale during the Weimar Republic . Apart from the private studios of individual artists, they only had three larger educational establishments with a limited range of courses at their disposal: the women 's academies in Munich and Berlin , which were founded through self-help , and the school for female painters in Karlsruhe , which was an exception - this was a private art school with state sponsorship.

The entire, rich, structured education and school system in the Grand Duchy of Baden , a constitutional monarchy since 1818 , was under the direct supervision and direction of the state from the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. Karlsruhe , residence of art, housed not only the Grand Ducal Picture Gallery and the Grand Ducal Majolica Manufactory , but also the Grand Ducal Badische Kunstschule founded in 1854 , which rose to become an Academy in 1892, the arts and crafts schools , from 1878 until the merger with the Academy in 1920, and the one founded in 1885 Painter School in Karlsruhe , which stopped teaching in 1923 for women at the Academy in 1923.

Grand ducal school for female painters in Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe had become a magnet for artists, especially since the founding of the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe in 1854 by Grand Duke Friedrich I (1826–1907). However, women interested in art were denied entry and they avoided private painting schools , such as B. Alwine Schroedter's private drawing school for women . The demand for professional training was enormous and teachers at the academy no longer accepted private students, so that in 1885 the association of private ladies' classes founded an art school especially for women, the “Grand Ducal School of Painters in Karlsruhe”. On October 1st, 1885, the school for women painters was opened under the patronage of Luise von Prussia . The school existed until 1923. In 1889 a studio building was built on the property of the Karlsruhe Art School Reinhold-Frank-Straße 65 (Westendstraße 65) (on the corner of Hoffstraße). There were a total of 29 studios in this building. Following the efforts of the Grand Duchess of Prussia, the school for women painters she founded could now be offered a domicile here.

This school for women painters was run as a private institution and subsidized by both the city and the state. Schoolgirls had to pay school fees and in order to be accepted, the school required the schoolgirls to do test work and proof that they had completed drawing lessons. There was also the opportunity to visit the school as an intern or to take part in one of the vacation courses offered by the school. The pupils at the school for female painters were taught by Karlsruhe artists who also taught at the art academy or privately.

The school's curriculum comprised various subjects: a distinction was initially made between general, preparatory lessons, painting classes and auxiliary subjects. The first comprised drawing from plaster models or the living model, landscape drawing and drawing from flower and still life. Flower / still life, landscape studies and figurative and portrait studies were taught in the painting classes. The auxiliary subjects provided for instruction in perspective, an anatomy course and the subject of art history. Over the years, the curriculum has been expanded to include other subjects, including evening nude and costume studies such as figural nude drawing, etching, lithography and modeling. The range of courses was also changed in such a way that a distinction was no longer made between drawing and painting auxiliary subjects, but everything was structured according to subject areas. Compared with the courses offered by the Karlsruhe Academy of Art, the curriculum of the School of Artists lacks "lessons in history and genre painting and decorative architecture". After all, the students were able to attend the graphic lessons as interns at the academy. From 1890 marine and animal painting was offered.

Paul Borgmann (1852–1893), Willi Döring (1850–1915), Edmund Kanoldt (1845–1904) and Max Petsch (1840–1888) were among the initiators of the school . Paul Bormann, who was a student of Karl Gussow in Weimar , had already directed the women's class in Karlsruhe before the school was founded. The total of 28 teachers that the students could choose from included comparatively few female teachers; a total of four found employment at the school.

In the first school year of 1885/1886, 44 students studied at the school for women painters. The numbers rose in the years to come, ten years after the school was founded, 74 students attended the school. On average, 60 female students were enrolled at the institute each year.

“KARLSRUHE. From the nineteenth annual report of the local school for female painters, which has just been published, and which is directed by Professors Otto Kemmer and Max Roman , we can see that the institute was attended by seventy-two students, including thirty-two new students, in the past school year and that now, in place of the resigned Professor Ritter Professor F. Fehr, a teacher who has already proven himself excellently in Munich and whose class has taken over. The twentieth school year begins on October 3rd, for which registrations must be submitted by September 15th. "

- Die Kunst, edition July 21, 1904

In 1910 the school's 25th anniversary was celebrated. Despite government support, the school for female painters got more and more financial difficulties due to the declining number of pupils. The First World War continued to worsen the situation. With the change in the admission requirements at the art academies, which had gradually opened up to women since 1919, in Karlsruhe from the winter semester 1919/20, the number of female students enrolled in the painting school continued to decline until classes were finally discontinued in 1923 and the school closed. A letter from the Ministry of Culture informs about this: "Explanation: The school for women painters ceased to exist in 1923."

Teacher

Schoolgirls (selection)

history

While artists have been able to receive professional and comprehensive training at art academies (academies of the fine arts) for centuries, the academies in Germany remained closed to women, with a few exceptions, until the 20th century. In the 19th century it was still a challenge for women to be trained as professional artists. Only with the legal equality of men and women in 1919 were women admitted to the "academies of fine arts".

Women lacked an institution comparable to the academy . Up-and-coming female artists could only receive artistic training at expensive private schools . In the wake of the numerous founding of women’s associations in the 19th century triggered by the women's movement , numerous women artists came together to improve the educational situation in the field of art. Proceeding from this self-help of women in general, corresponding associations soon arose in the artistic field and female artists founded associations and groups on their own initiative, initially on a regional level, such as B. the "Association of Berlin Artists and Art Friends" (1867), the "Munich Artists Association" (1882), the "Karlsruhe School of Artists" (1885). The so-called " ladies' academies " emerged, which enabled women to study art, which was similar to that at the "art academy".

The overarching goal of the alliances was to improve the teaching and training offer for women artists. Soon there were supraregional associations: in 1908, nine associations formed the “Association of German and Austrian Artists”; In 1913 the “Frauenkunstverband” was established, and in 1926, on the initiative of Ida Dehmel , the GEDOK (Association of German and Austrian Artists' Associations of All Art Genres) was founded.

In Germany, Gerlinde Brandenburger-Eisele examined the Karlsruhe School of Painting (1980) in her master’s thesis. In Karlsruhe the documents of the academy administration were almost completely destroyed by the effects of the war in 1942 and 1944; the rest of the documents are in the General State Archives in Karlsruhe. With regard to the art academy, the holdings GLAK 235 ("Landeskunstschule") are of particular interest; there are also various bequests, some of which provide information about the art academy. The academy itself does not have any files relevant to the period under review. The Karlsruhe City Archives have some material on the Karlsruhe School of Artists, including a collection of newspaper articles on the school and various annual reports from the institution. The city archive does not keep any archive material for the art academy.

literature

  • Anne-Kathrin Herber: Women at German Art Academies in the 20th Century. Training opportunities for female artists from 1919 with special consideration of the South German art academies, (dissertation) Heidelberg, 2009
  • Painter Association Karlsruhe, report on the 15th association year 1907/08
  • Peter Liptau: The building of the art academy Karlsruhe. A history of construction. , GRIN Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-640-77288-9

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “IX. Annual report “of the school of female painters 1893/94
  2. ↑ Luise von Prussia , on ka.stadtwiki.net
  3. ^ Atelier building, school for female painters, view of the north and east front  in the German Digital Library , accessed on July 25, 2015
  4. ^ The buildings of the Karlsruhe Art Academy: Atelier House I
  5. ^ Private school: School of painters, Westendstr. 65, with 6 teachers and 60 students , on ka.stadtwiki.net, accessed on July 25, 2015
  6. ^ Paul Bormann: Founder of a painting studio for women in Karlsruhe, since 1888 head of a school for women painters  in the German Digital Library , accessed on July 25, 2015
  7. ^ Hans Wolfgang Singer : General Artist Lexicon
  8. ^ Die Kunst , Volume Ninth, issue July 21, 1904, p. 508
  9. ↑ Exhibitor: Teacher at the Karlsruhe School of Artists, Resi Borgmann  in the German Digital Library , accessed on July 25, 2015
  10. ^ Otto Kemmer, director of the school for women painters, professor  in the German digital library
  11. ↑ landscape of Wilhelm Nagel its former place of return ( Memento of 22 February 2016 Internet Archive ) www.oestringen.de, on citizens' summary of 9 December 2011, accessed on July 25, 2015
  12. ^ Die Kunst , Volume Ninth, issue July 21, 1904, p. 508
  13. ↑ Max Roman, director of the school for female painters  in the German Digital Library , accessed on July 25, 2015
  14. ^ Matha Dehrmann: Der Frauenkunstverband (1913), in: Muysers 1999 a, pp. 294–296