Mathilde Battenberg

Self-Portrait 1900

Mathilde Battenberg (born April 4, 1878 in Alzey ; †  August 13, 1936 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German painter .

life and work

Caroline Luise Mathilde Elisabeth Battenberg was the eldest daughter of the teacher Friedrich Wilhelm Battenberg and his wife Mathilde. Friedrich Battenberg became pastor at Frankfurt's Peterskirche in 1884 , so the family moved to Frankfurt and from 1893 to Jahnstraße 20. Mathilde Battenberg spent her school days, partly living with relatives, in Strasbourg at the Bon Pasteur Institute . Realizing her childhood dream, she received lessons at the Städel from 1895–99 - as one of the first painting students with Ottilie W. Roederstein. Battenberg was also impressed by the fact that Roederstein was emancipated, unusual for the time, when she lived with a life partner. After her studies in Frankfurt, Battenberg lived with her partner Elisabeth H. Winterhalter, from 1912, after the death of her parents, with her younger brother Hans.

Her brother Ugi Battenberg followed their example in 1898. Mathilde Battenberg learned introduced by Roeder stone, the artistic life in Paris ( Louvre ) and Barbizon know and studied from 1899 at the Paris private school Académie Colarossi , the students inside allowed. Characteristic of the painting style learned there by Charles Cottet , Lucien Simon and the Norwegian Frits Thaulow was - in contrast to the prevailing impressionistic spirit - to embed dark tones of paint, which is visible in Battenberg's portraits and their dark colors. Battenberg was open to free religious impulses (throughout his life), an inclination that, despite the customs of a Protestant parsonage, was co-conditioned and encouraged by her mother. Battenberg went on study trips to France, Holland, Florence and Berlin.

From 1906 she had her own studio on Frankfurter Hochstrasse, and two years later one in the Städel . She exhibited in Frankfurt, Munich and Metz, mainly portraits and still lifes, together with other representatives of late impressionism .

Provence landscape 1915

After the death of her parents in 1912, Battenberg first moved to Hofheim am Taunus , the following year back to Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen and made an extended trip to France in 1914 (Photo: Provence Landschaft), which she had to break off in August due to the German declaration of war. In the apartment of brother Ugi and sister-in-law, she met Max Beckmann , with whom she exhibited in Frankfurt. Compared to earlier portraits, Battenberg's (Portrait of an African) is surprised by the intense colors and contoured brushwork.

Portrait of an African 1915

In the 1920s, Battenberg was valued and sought-after as a portraitist in Frankfurt, as well as among clients in Switzerland. From 1929 onwards , further works were created in the new Städel studio, which she took over from Wilhelm Steinhausen and his daughter Marie Paquet-Steinhausen , especially portraits of girls (child portrait of Maria Giese, 1929).

Mathilde Battenberg's grave

Mathilde Battenberg was buried in the Frankfurt main cemetery (Won J 954).

Services

Mathilde Battenberg was a sought-after Frankfurt portrait painter. Contrary to the themes and roles assigned to women in the art of her time, she built up an existence as a painter, found her subjects and developed her own painting style. All of this was forgotten after Battenberg's death; her art was hardly exhibited until 2007 and has only been rediscovered since then.

Works (selection)

• Portrait of Ludwig Battenberg (1898)
• Self-Portrait with Beret (around 1900)
• Portrait of Karl Weigert (1903/04, first major portrait commission)
• Sailor Mother (1906)
• Roses Lying in Front of a Window (around 1910)
• Provence landscape (1914)
• Portrait of an African (1915), private collection.
• Three jugs of flowers (1919)
• Self-Portrait (1928)

literature

• Hilke Peckmann: The painter Mathilde Battenberg (1878-1936). In: Ed. 1822 Foundation of the Frankfurter Sparkasse: The artist family Battenberg. Students of OW Roederstein and friends of Max Beckmann. Frankfurt am Main 2007, pp. 9–39 (scientific article).
• Katja Behling, Anke Manigold: The painting women. Intrepid artists around 1900 . Munich: Elisabeth Sandmann, 2009, p. 85.

Individual proof

1. ^ Peckmann: Battenberg , pp. 13.18.24.